Li'l Abner (musical)

Li'l Abner is a musical theatre production based on the comic strip Li'l Abner by Al Capp. It has music by Gene De Paul and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The book was written by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank.

Related Topics:
Musical - Comic strip - Li'l Abner - Al Capp - Gene De Paul - Johnny Mercer - Norman Panama - Melvin Frank

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In keeping with the Li'l Abner comic strip, the musical is, on the surface, a broad satire on hillbillies but is, in fact, a more pointed satire taking on any number of topics, ranging from an incompetent United States federal government to standards of masculinity.

Related Topics:
Satire - Hillbillies - United States federal government - Masculinity

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The plot centers around two things: first, Dogpatch, the town that is the main setting of the comic strip, has been declared the "most unnecessary town" in the U.S. and is set to be turned into a nuclear testing site; second, the water that Li'l Abner has been drinking all of his life is discovered to be a potion that makes men strong and handsome, but also utterly uninterested in sex.

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The town is ultimately saved when a plaque is discovered declaring that its local hero, the confederate general Jubilation T. Cornpone was, by virtue of his incompetence, so instrumental in the defeat of his own army as to be a hero of the Republic.

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