Li’l Abner

This classic American musical features performances by Cathy Rigby and Fred Willard.

Based on the comic strip by Al Capp, Li’l Abner is, on the surface, a broad spoof of hillbillies but is also a pointed satire taking on any number of topics, ranging from an incompetent United States federal government to standards of masculinity. The plot centers on 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.