Al Capp's characters and situations are comically
classic: Buxom blond Daisy Mae
hankers after but has never quite pinned down big, muscular Abner in
marriage. Pappy Yokum's all for it
but the Kickapoo Joy Juice that Mammy Yokum gives their son to keep him
anything but "Li'l" also quenches desire. Earthquake McGoon has
plenty of that for Daisy Mae. She aims instead to catch Abner on Sadie Hawkins
Day, when Dogpatch gals get to chase and wed the men they tag. But just before
it dawns, it's not "A Typical Day" when scientist Ramona Finsdale
arrives from Washington D.C. to announce evacuation for an imminent nuclear test. Neither town nor race
will be spared, unless Dogpatch can prove it's not America's most unnecessary
place. How will that happen when its backward hillbillies take after the town's founder, the
perpetual loser "Jubilation T. Cornpone"? And even if the bombing's stopped, won't General Bullmoose
get recipe and rights to make and market Joy Juice by fixing the race so that
his stooge Appassionata Von Climax wins Abner?
Though dated and mostly silly, Li'l Abner has some
rousing songs, with clever anytime lyrics typical of Johnny Mercer. "The
Country's In the Very Best of Hands" satirizes politics today as
effectively as it did in 1950.
Dewayne Barrett's "Sadie Hawkins Day Ballet" and
"Matrimonial Stomp" choreography nicely fits the show as well as the
limits of the dancers.
Highlighting the production
are Michael Newton-Brown's cartoonish set and the primary-colored costumes Dee
Richards designed following Capp's drawings.
Director Robert Ennis Turoff obviously put a lot of
thought into having his cast look
its part and act so as to live up to the subtitle, Rip Roarin' Musical. He contributes further a seriously hardboiled General
Bulmoose, matching the greediness
(for government compensation money) shown by Joe Hunter's Mayor Dawgmeat
and Brian Nichols' Senator Phogbound. Easily the star both acting and singing, Heather Kopp as Daisy Mae goes from
funny, claiming "I'm Past My
Prime", to romantic wishing for "Love in a Home." With looks and a voice much like a
young Howard Keel's, Matthew C. Scott as Abner is tall of stature but short on
charisma. That makes more of a
rival out of lively Ryan Kimball
Fitts' McGoon. Perhaps their origins are responsible for the show's comic caricatures being the most fun:
Michael Bajjaly, goofy and all-out-ostentatious as Marryin' Sam; rambunctious Ellie Pattison as pipe
smokin' Mammy Yokum alongside
peppy though bent over Pappy played by plucky Bob Trisolini. After a
stiff start, Roberta MacDonald warms up later just as does her Dr.
Finsdale. Sevasty Antoniades and
Kathryn Ohrenstein do sexy turns respectively as Appassionata and Stupefyin'
Jones. Eric Gregory as Available Jones, Craig Weiskerger as Evil Eye Fleagle,
and Charlie Nelson as Moonbeam McSwine
illustrate their characters' names.
John Visser and his musicians do justice to the score for
2 and 1/2 hours, except for a 15 minute intermission. It is unusual for an
oldie like Li'l Abner to be new to the longest continuously run dinner theatre
in America, but an audience known
for liking nostagia should especially enjoy this romp as a
remembrance.