Li'l Abner
July 12, 13, 14, and
19, 20, 21, and 22, 2012
An Original Musical Comedy by
NORMAN PANAMA and MELVIN FRANK
Based on Characters Created by
AL CAPP
Direction & Choreography by
MICHAEL KIDD
Lyrics and Music By
JOHNNY MERCER and GENE DE PAUL
Presented through Special Arrangement with
TAMS-WITMARK MUSIC LIBRARY, Inc.
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by Tams-Witmark.
560 Lexington Avenue
Phone: 212-688-2525
TAMS-WITMARK MUSIC LIBRARY, Inc.
How much do you know about Li'l Abner, the musical, and the character's creator, Al Capp?
Did you know...
In 1934 an American Jew, born of Russian immigrant parents and living in New York, brought a hillbilly named Li'l Abner to the funny papers. The rest, they say, is history.
Out of the life experience of Al Capp (poverty, prejudice, family dysfunction, and a conviction that the American dream was destined nonetheless to be available to all), he and his two hired artists brought this country some of its most enduring American icons:
Li'l Abner, forever nineteen years old and tonic-ed up by his Mammy to be tall, handsome, lazy, and unfortunately utterly uninterested in romance.
Daisy Mae, divinely gifted with a gorgeous face and luscious figure, clever, and desperate to marry Li'l Abner.
Mammy Yokum, the pipe-smoking pipsqueak matriarch of Dogpatch and the Yokum family with her unimpeachable pronouncement of power: "I has spoken!"
Stupefyin' Jones, a gal so gorgeous she need not speak: Just sashay by, and men fall into a coma.
Jubilation T. Cornpone, revered war hero for his tactic of running when soldiers were in danger.
Dogpatch, "the most unnecessary town in the U.S.A." where the ground's so poor they can only grow turnips, which year by year are devoured by pests.
Kickapoo Joy Juice, a moonshine so toxic it might kill somebody of a gentler constitution than a citizen of Dogpatch.
Sadie Hawkins Day, venerated by generations of Li'l Abner-reading females and borrowed from cultures older than America's, on which any woman who catches her man can keep 'im.
Frank Panama (Mr. Blanding's Dream House, White Christmas) tried to capitalize on the public's interest in Li'l Abner and by most accounts was successful, but the result was disappointing to many for failing to capture the fast pace of the daily Li'l Abner comic.
The musical, however, hit the stage in 1956 and ran for nearly 700 performances. Live theatre, with its perfect venue for merging funny-papers' over-the-top action and pulse-raising, high-kickin' and stompin' dance sequences, brought Li'l Abner's perennially poor, lazy, proud menfolk and its clever, desperate-to-wed women to middle America's post-war warm-and-filled families.
You may have seen a few Dogpatch stragglers in ROGUE MUSIC THEATRE's Consumer Expo booth (November 2011) and at the downtown Grants Pass Christmas Parade (December 2011). There's more to come: Expect Li'l Abner and cohorts to turn up in a few surprising places between now and July's curtain call.
Then join us in July 2012 as ROGUE MUSIC THEATRE plays host to the musical theatre world's favorite hillbillies by turning Grants Pass into Dogpatch U.S.A. at the RCC Concert Bowl.
