Longtime readers of this site — I think I have some — know that I am a huge fan of the musical, Li'l Abner. I was too young to see it the first and only time it was on Broadway but I loved the 1959 movie of it which everyone says was very close to what was done on stage. I wrote about the Broadway version here and about the movie here.
(Quick aside: The DVD of the movie is out of print. There's a rights dispute about the movie and it might be some time before it's straightened out and someone can put out a new DVD or reissue the old one. If you see a copy around at an affordable price, you might want to grab it but beware: There are a lot of cheap public domain versions around of the 1940 non-musical movie version and some of them are packaged to look like the '59 version, even using stills and cast lists from that one.)
I have seen seven or eight stagings of the musical. It has never been revived for Broadway because, among other reasons, it's not a cheap show to do. It takes a very large cast…which oddly enough makes it the ideal show for a college or community theater that doesn't pay its performers. In those venues, the more actors you get on stage, the more friends and relatives of the cast buy tickets. In fact, some productions have flooded the stage with people for that reason…and costuming can be done on the cheap since most performers are, after all, dressed as hillbillies.
Wednesday evening, I saw what was easily the best production I've ever seen of the show…with a pretty large cast in a pretty small theater on the campus of Los Angeles City College. There were 33 people — a mix of students and Equity performers. They also had a five-piece orchestra that more than did justice to the fine Johnny Mercer-Gene DePaul score.
I had reservations about seeing the show in such a small auditorium…and the fact that they were doing only seven performances did not bode well for great production values or polished performances. Then again, I was hopeful because the show was being staged by my pal Bruce Kimmel, who is very good at this kind of thing and who shares my fondness for the material. Bruce has always wanted to direct a production of Li'l Abner and he did a great job.
It started with terrific casting. The four lead roles — Evan Harris as Abner, Madison Claire Parks as Daisy Mae, John Massey as Marryin' Sam and Barry Pearl as General Bullmoose — set the high bar for the evening…strong presences and the ability to deliver the over-the-top dialogue with utter sincerity.
Abner is a tricky role to cast. It demands a certain type — tall, muscular, handsome — that lets out about 95% of all actors. The producers of the original show had a devil of a time finding the right Abner and once they found Peter Palmer, they never did the show without him. Evan Harris fits the physical requirements, sings well and manages that "twinkle" the character needs to say outrageously egotistical things and still make you root for him to succeed and get the girl.
That girl can be a thankless role if not approached properly. Oddly enough, though Edie Adams campaigned to land it (before she saw the script) and won a Tony for her performance as Daisy Mae, she didn't like the show or what she had to do in it. Madison Claire Parks really made the part into something by nailing its inherent sweetness…and I suppose it didn't hurt that she's beautiful and has an astounding singing voice.
I was really impressed by John Massey who got every single laugh there is in the Marryin' Sam role plus a number that weren't in the script. We were sitting second-row center and it was a joy to watch all the subtle reactions and expressions on his face. (Actually, it's such a small theater than I'm sure everyone saw them.) Mr. Massey also sings quite well and did full justice to the best song in the show, "Jubilation T. Cornpone." The audience would not have minded a dozen encores.
And then you have Barry Pearl as the bad guy, General Bullmoose, delightfully chewing up and spitting out the simple, handpainted scenery…again getting every laugh in the script plus more. Some of the character's blustery, avaricious rantings sounded especially funny and pointed as delivered by Mr. Pearl in the era of Wall Street excess. People sometimes talk about updating the book of this show to make it more modern…but it seemed pretty timely Wednesday night, especially when General Bullmoose was talking.
I single out those four actors but really, everyone was good. Everyone. The show calls for a lot of speaking parts — too many to itemize here — and I don't know how Kimmel did it but every one was filled by someone who pulled theirs off. Most of those on the stage were drama students at the school and you could feel the talent and potential. You could also see that sparkle and happiness that occurs when young folks are doing something they love. Richard Sherman, who was sitting with us, remarked on that. It was one of the things we in the audience most enjoyed about the show: How much the folks on stage were enjoying the show.
Sets were simple but effective in two-dimensional comic strip style. The arrangements by David Siegel served Gene DePaul's score well, dialing it down for the five-piece band so effectively that no more instruments were needed. And I don't know what they spent on costuming — for these few performances, it couldn't have been much — but designers Roxanne De Ment and Natalya Shahinyan saw to it that each actor went out there perfectly dressed to be whoever they were supposed to be.
Which leads us to the one bad thing about this show, which is that it opened on Wednesday and plays its last performances tomorrow. I suppose it's tough getting people to traipse to this little theater on the campus of L.A. City College, even to see a show as good as this one. My town sadly doesn't have a lot of great performance venues into which one might move a show of this size but I sure hope they find one.
As I said, I really know and love this musical and have sat through a lot of productions that tried hard and couldn't quite manage to be what they should have been. You need a really large, talented cast and operation. It was amazing that Bruce Kimmel could do it at all, let alone in a small theater with what I'm sure were limited resources.
There may still be seats for the one show this evening and the matinee tomorrow. (The last performance, which is tomorrow night, is sold out.) Here's a link in case you're local and want to have a real good time on the cheapest theater ticket you'll ever purchase. I hope the last performance isn't the last performance because I'd like to visit Dogpatch again.