Li'l Abner

Dogpatch, U.S.A. has jumped from the comic strips to the stage. Luckily Dogpatch loses little of its good-natured fun in the transition, even if the world of Li'l Abner becomes a bit more finite and less imaginative.

One obvious advantage of the musical version over its newspaper predecessor is its choreography. Easily handling a stage that is nearly always teeming with hillbillies or, on one occasion, Washington blue bloods, Michael Kidd continually constructs exuberant displays. With wit, ballet, acrobatics, and pantomime as tools, he creates a life on stage that is a pleasure to watch. At his worst, his hand is merely too obvious, owing to the sometimes overprofessional polish of his characters' motion; at his best, as in the very amusing Sadie Hawkins Day chase, his work is a tour de force.

Li'l Abner is lucky to have Mr. Kidd, for the plot is not strong, there is little acting, and the songs and singing are unexceptional.

The story begins in Dogpatch, where residents are threatened with eviction from their ancestral homes to make way for a nuclear testing ground. Dogpatchers, led by Mammy Yokum, decide to market their own alcoholic distillate, which will make them indispensable to the nation. Their product becomes a security matter and involves the mercenary interests of General Bullmoose. Only Mammy's triple whammy and a herd of relatives save Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae from disastrous marriages and actually end an egregiously complicated story.

Li'l Abner's simple satire is often lost in this maze, and the frequent barbed references--to Ike, parity, Stevenson, Presley, toothpaste, Kim Novak, Wall St. and war--often overweigh the two long acts.

The pace is occasionally revived by the music in such lively songs as the mock-eloquent "Jubilation T. Cornpone" and the snappy "What's Good for General Bullmoose." Few of the other songs, however, help. After an overture that is loud, fast, and trite the show includes several mediocre tunes and one or two ugly, sentimental mistakes.

None of the singing voices is particularly good, but none is bad. Most of the acting is quite adequate. Edith Adams and Peter Palmer fill the leads pleasantly, while Howard St. John's Bullmoose and Stubby Kaye's Marryin' Sam are amusing and refreshing. Although she shows traces of Ethel Merman and a witch from Macbeth, Charlotte Ray proves a good choice for Mammy Yokum. Pappy's role is properly squeaked by J. E. Marks.

Backed by the gay, mobile scenery of W. and J. Eckert, dressed in appropriate costumes by Alvin Colt, and directed by the skilled Mr. Kidd, the actors manage, all in all, to keep up the flavor and reputation of Al Capp's brainless but enjoyable world.