2008 Woodie Awards
'Li'l Abner' offers funny, retro musical
Emily Salner and Jessica Slosberg
Issue date: 2/8/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Small town Southerners with their inescapable drawl, peculiar logic and ill-fitting clothes invaded DU last weekend as Abner and his gang from Dogpatch tried to prove why their town is necessary.
The musical comedy, "Li'l Abner," was performed Friday and Sunday by the Lamont Opera Voice Program in the Hamilton Recital Hall of the Newman Center for Performing Arts.
Because Hamilton is such a small concert stage, the sets for the musical were minimal. However, the costuming which was closely linked to the popular comic strip the show was based on, helped the audience to set the scene.
This musical takes places in the 1940s and is about a tiny Southern town called Dogpatch, USA. The town was started by an inept Confederate general named Jubilation. However, the government finds the town useless and wants to use as a test site for the atomic bomb. In order to stop the government from doing this, the townspeople must find something "necessary" about their town.
After many lame offerings by Dogpatchers, the mother of Li'l Abner offers her "Yokumberry Tonic," which is a potion that she gives her son every day to make him strong and handsome.
A few other men in the town try the tonic and turn out to look just like Abner. The men are taken to Washington, D.C., to be tested to see if it works and thus making the town necessary, as the tree that the tonic is produced from only grows in Dogpatch.
While this is going on, Daisy Mae, who is in love with Abner, is getting ready to catch him at the Sadie Hawkins Day race, where the women chase the men until they catch the one they want to marry. Instead of Daisy Mae catching him, he is instead caught by the mistress of General Bullmoose, Apassionata von Climax. Bullmoose is using his woman to catch Abner, in order to get his hands on the potion. This is after Abner will not sell him the recipe. Instead, Climax will marry Abner and then he will have an accident. The catching and accident are being arranged by Fleagle Eye, the villian.
The musical comedy, "Li'l Abner," was performed Friday and Sunday by the Lamont Opera Voice Program in the Hamilton Recital Hall of the Newman Center for Performing Arts.
Because Hamilton is such a small concert stage, the sets for the musical were minimal. However, the costuming which was closely linked to the popular comic strip the show was based on, helped the audience to set the scene.
This musical takes places in the 1940s and is about a tiny Southern town called Dogpatch, USA. The town was started by an inept Confederate general named Jubilation. However, the government finds the town useless and wants to use as a test site for the atomic bomb. In order to stop the government from doing this, the townspeople must find something "necessary" about their town.
After many lame offerings by Dogpatchers, the mother of Li'l Abner offers her "Yokumberry Tonic," which is a potion that she gives her son every day to make him strong and handsome.
A few other men in the town try the tonic and turn out to look just like Abner. The men are taken to Washington, D.C., to be tested to see if it works and thus making the town necessary, as the tree that the tonic is produced from only grows in Dogpatch.
While this is going on, Daisy Mae, who is in love with Abner, is getting ready to catch him at the Sadie Hawkins Day race, where the women chase the men until they catch the one they want to marry. Instead of Daisy Mae catching him, he is instead caught by the mistress of General Bullmoose, Apassionata von Climax. Bullmoose is using his woman to catch Abner, in order to get his hands on the potion. This is after Abner will not sell him the recipe. Instead, Climax will marry Abner and then he will have an accident. The catching and accident are being arranged by Fleagle Eye, the villian.