Li'l Abner is one of my favorite musical comedies. I never got to see the Broadway original but the movie is very close to it and has been watched many a time in my house.
Since no full scale stage revival is imminent, we have to settle for "concert" versions which use minimal sets and smaller casts. I've seen several and last night, I was at the opening for the one currently being mounted by the Reprise! group, which stages shows up at U.C.L.A. This one's there through February 17 and if you're anywhere in the area, get yourself some tickets and perambulate on down to Dogpatch Country and catch it. Abner and his kin are in the very best of hands.
In the above pic, you see Eric Martslof, who has the title role...and the voice and physique to carry it off. So does Brandi Burkhardt, who plays Daisy Mae. Robert Towers and Cathy Rigby play Pappy and Mammy Yokum, and that's Fred Willard, who is properly sinister as General Bullmoose. (Not in the photo: Several other cast members who do outstanding work, including Michael Kostroff, who plays Marryin' Sam, and Larry Cedar, who plays Rufus T. Finsdale, the scientist.) Michael Michetti directed, Lee Martino did the choreography and Darryl Archibald is responsible for the musical direction.
I was struck by how great the show sounded. I always liked the score but the songs were especially lush and melodic last night. And the dancing — and this is not always the case with these "concert" performances — was amazing. Given how little rehearsal they get, it's an achievement that people are up there dancing at all, let alone this good. The hoofing was energetic and athletic and an awful lot of fun, especially a sequence where Ms. Rigby put her gymnastic skills to good use.
Yeah, the story's kinda silly. (Near the end, the police arrest General Bullmoose and haul him away. I defy anyone who sees the show or movie to explain to me exactly what they're going to charge him with, especially given the fact that they don't arrest Evil Eye Fleagle.) But if a cast hits the right joyous tone, it works well...and it worked well last night on the stage of Macgowan Hall. Which is where you'll hightail it before the 17th if you have a lick o' sense.
If I haven't done a sufficient selling job on it here, take a gander at a preview over on this page. And if you want to order tix — as of this afternoon, there will still some left — this page is where you want to go.
One other thing! There are two Saturday matinees ahead and each is preceded by a lecture on the history of the Broadway show. Each starts at Noon and runs an hour. Then, if you have tix for the matinee, you have to kill an hour...which is easy to do on the U.C.L.A. campus. (I killed several years there.) They clear the house and then the matinee performance commences at 2 PM.
This coming Saturday, February 9, the lecture will be delivered by my friend, the eminent historian of the theater, Miles Kreuger. And then on February 16, the lecture will be delivered by me. Both of us will have one or more special guests from the original Broadway production in attendance...I hope. For more information and the number to phone for reservations, check out this page.
I have a special e-mail address that I use to register on political websites where you have to register. Since I read a lot of them and over a diverse range of views, that address gets thousands of e-mails urging me to vote this way or that way or to not vote...and of course, almost every message includes a pitch to give money. A lot of them don't say much more than...
Don't you just hate and loathe [name of candidate]? Aren't you terrified that if [name of candidate] gets elected, your family will be [pick one: attacked, bankrupted, destroyed, etc.]? Well, we have the way to stop [name of candidate] and you can make it happen if you only send us money.
Stuff like that. If I were more cynical and mercenary, I think I'd just set up a batch of websites — one for every candidate out there with a disapproval rating of over 15% or so — and push the idea that I'm close to unearthing the scandal that will destroy them, once and for all...if only people will give me enough cash to complete my mission. Because of sheer competition, I don't think I'd get a huge amount of money but I bet I'd get enough to make it worth my while.
This morning, I took a peek in the mailbox of my special e-mail address. There were 12,000 messages in there, which I think is the maximum the inbox can hold. In perfect symmetry, the first five were pleas to donate to destroy Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, John McCain and Mitt Romney. I have a hunch the Romney Destroyers aren't going to be getting many donations after this morning.
The anti-Hillary and anti-Obama messages were from different addresses but obviously from the same author. They were both pushing John McCain with the following odd (to me) pitch...
There are seven undeniable reasons why we must elect John McCain. One is the War in Iraq and the other six are six Supreme Court justices who are over the age of 68.
I don't think the first of those reasons is going to do it for Senator McCain. Not with every single poll saying that Americans now oppose the War in Iraq by around a two-to-one consensus. They may be personally fond of the man — I am or at least was when he wasn't out pandering for the Limbaugh voters — but when it comes down to voting for four more years of Stay the Course? I don't think so.
And as for the other six reasons: If you're presuming that being over 68 means the person is likely to die in the next four years, is that a good reason to vote for a guy who's 71?
Yesterday in the class I teach in Humor Writing at U.S.C., we somehow segued from talking about the current Writers Strike to discussing the Great Comedians Strike of 1979. That was when the comics working The Comedy Store, the Improv and a couple of other L.A. clubs decided it was time to demand payment for appearances which had previously been pro bono.
This article, excerpted from a new book by Richard Zoglin, will give you the basics. It's an accurate portrait to which I would add one point. If you're going to read it, read it first and then come back and read the rest of this post.
Okay, you're back. The thing I'd add is that at the core of the comedians' complaint was that they felt what they did — their product, if you will — was being seriously devalued. It's very much like the way cartoonists are always asked for free drawings by people who think it doesn't cost them anything to give away what they do for a living. The Comedy Store, which then as now was/is run by Mitzi Shore, was big news at the time — a lot of careers had been made there — and every newspaper article or TV feature seemed to be driving home the point that comedians worked for free; that professional comedy was not something a club owner or talent booker had to pay for.
Imitations of The Comedy Store were popping up all over the place. Entrepreneurs thought there was a gold mine there, especially since they wouldn't have to lay out money for their star attractions. There were all sorts of stories about night clubs that had previously hired musical acts, and now the owner thought, "Hey, let's stop paying musicians and bring in stand-up comedians. Comedians work for free!" I heard one comic telling others how he'd received an offer to go play a club that was opening in Bakersfield. The money offered was insulting and when he told the proprietor that, the guy responded, "Hey, you should be grateful I'm even offering anything. The Comedy Store doesn't pay you a cent."
If it had just been a matter of The Comedy Store not paying, it might not have been much of an issue. There was an undeniable value to playing there for some. But it was a matter of stand-up comedy everywhere being viewed as something that didn't warrant payment, no matter how much cash the club was raking in when you were on stage.
I was even affected by it. I was writing for a comedian friend who, to put it simply, couldn't afford to pay me. In fact, after he performed, we'd go down to Carney's just down the street from The Store for burgers, and I'd have to pay for us both; that's how broke the guy was. A year or two later, he began getting paying gigs and making a decent living...but for a time there, it was just insulting that he had to live the way he was living, having to promise me that some day, he'd pay me what he owed me. (He did, by the way.) During this poverty period, he had a hard time explaining to his family and friends why, if he had what looked like a job and if they had to pay to go see him, he had to borrow the money to just get some new clothes to wear on stage.
The strike was a nasty thing, as most strikes are. Ten years later at a party, a comedian who'd crossed the picket line and one who was on that picket line almost came to blows over it, and I can think of a few combinations I still wouldn't want to gather in the same room. And as with so many strikes, the outcome seemed inevitable...and you had to wonder why they had to go through all that to get to that point. Alas, because of human intransigence, it is sometimes necessary. When the current Writers Strike ends, we'll be pondering why they couldn't just have given us that same deal back in November and made it easier on everyone...including themselves.
By the way: Several folks have written to ask what I think about the premise that the current shows hosted by Leno, Stewart, Colbert and a few others are really being ad-libbed or written by their stars, and that no scabbing is going on. I think the premise is absurd and I'll write more about this in the next couple of days.
This is from some film or TV show of the fifties...Eddie Jackson and Jimmy Durante entertaining the heck out of a roomful of extras. It's four minutes and I'll bet it makes you smile.
I'm back from opening night of Li'l Abner, as staged up at U.C.L.A. by the Reprise! group. When I have time tomorrow, I'll post a review but I just wanted to mention that if you're within commuting distance, get tickets and go. It's very good.
(By the way: I'm swamped with yet another deadline so the next few posts here are ones that I wrote some time ago. If you're the guy I'm working for, don't think I'm writing on my weblog instead of your project.)
February 8, 2008
