![[Li'l Abner]](../images/abner.jpg)
Music and Lyrics by Johhny Mercer and Gene de Paul
Book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank
Opens Friday, April 28, 2000 and runs for three weekends at the Burnhamthorpe Auditorium (see below for full information). Tickets go on sale in March, 2000. For more information, or to order tickets, call the BOX OFFICE at (416) 248-0410.
Location:
Burnhamthorpe Auditorium
500 The East Mall
(just north of Burnhamthorpe Rd.)
Etobicoke, Ontario
Show dates & times:
April 28-30, and May 5-7, 12-13, 2000
Friday and Saturday Evening Performances at 8:00 PM;
Sunday Matinee Performances at 2:00 PM
Ticket Prices:
$18.00 All tickets - reserved seating only
Group discounts are available for orders of 10 tickets or more; call the
box office for details.
When I was fortunate enough to read Li'l Abner, the musical for the first time, about three years ago, I found it to be one of the funniest scripts I had read. It encorporated the elements of satire, irony, charicature, and straight-forward comedy just as I had remembered the comic strip had done. Indeed, Al Capp's work laid the foundations for the sociopolitical satire of Gary Trudeau and Matt Groening that I (and I'm sure many of you) enjoy today.
EMP and I are excited to ring in the new millenium with a revival of this former hit. The hilarious book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, a delightfully melodic score by Johhny Mercer and Gene de Paul, achieved a run of 693 performances on Broadway before rave reviews during the 1956-58 season.
The tuneful success tells of the efforts of the simple mountain people of the cartoon strip to save their community from destruction. Washington strategists have selected Dogpatch as the most unneccessary place in the USA, and plan to move the atomic bomb tests from Nevada unless the citizens can prove to the contrary. When Mammy Yokum turns up with the Yokumberry Tonic, the elixir which has made Li'l Abner the superman that he is, it would appear that Dogpatch is saved.
General Bullmoose has other plans! Taking Li'l Abner off to Washington, supposedly to represent Yokumberry Tonic in a plea to save Dogpatch, he puts the seductive Appasssionata Von Climax and Evil Eye Fleagle, the scurrilious gentleman with the power of the Double Whammy, to work on Abner, hoping to get Mammy Yokum's secret formula from Abner, for his own gain. Mammy learns of Bullmoose's plot and enlists the citizens of Dogpatch to rescue her son. Before the Yokums, the Scraggs, and the other citizens return to Dogpatch, they turn Washington upside down and inside out!
The Mercer-dePaul tunes range from the frankly sentimental to the satirically ribald. They include Namely You, gentle duet between Abner and Daisy Mae, his ever-pursuing girl friend; the hilarious Jubilation T. Cornpone, describing the exploits of Dogpatch's most famous citizen, who lost the Civil War practically single-handed; Progress is the Root of All Evil, a personal viewpoint put forth by General Bullmoose; and The Country's in the Very Best of Hands, which pokes fun at the political state of the nation.
I hope you will all join us for this nostalgic and hilarious romp in spring 2000!
Jerome Madden,
Artistic Director