by Christopher Cappiello

Reprise! looks to draw a crowd with Li’l Abner

Southland theater director Michael Michetti is a veteran of many productions, most closely identified with serious dramas at Pasadena’s Theatre @ Boston Court, where he serves as co-artistic director. So how different is it for a director who has earned a reputation for helming such works as Paradise Lost, Pera Palas and The Picture of Dorian Gray to tackle the—literally—cartoonish 1950s classic Li’l Abner for Reprise! Broadway’s Best?

“I feel like every work needs its own kind of approach,” he says without fuss or pretension, speaking calmly for a man who is halfway through a highly condensed two-week rehearsal period for a major musical. “Certainly this is a show that needs a light-handed approach, a sense of playfulness.” But even with a show about the barefooted, somewhat backward denizens of Dogpatch, USA, “I love trying to find the humanity in it,” he emphasizes. “So while we’re definitely approaching the show as a comic strip—which is what it is—and trying to find all the breadth of character and cartoonish aspects that are appropriate for that, we’re also trying to root all the characters in some kind of truth.”

To assist in that effort, Michetti has a cast with very diverse backgrounds, including Passions’ Eric Martsolf and Brandi Lynn Burkhardt as Abner and Daisy Mae, the blond bombshell whose overt overtures go over the head of the hunky but romantically dimwitted Abner. Cathy Rigby, who has made a second career playing Peter Pan more than 2,500 times, plays Mammy Yokum, while frequent Christopher Guest collaborator Fred Willard brings his unique comic genius to General Bullmoose. “I have a wonderful cast,” Michetti says with gratitude.

“We also have an amazing group of dancers on this show, which is really a blessing,” he says. Even with the condensed rehearsal schedule, Reprise! doesn’t shy away from dance-heavy musicals. Renowned Broadway director/choreographer Michael Kidd earned one of his five Tony Awards for the original 1956 Broadway production’s choreography, and Li’l Abner’s ambitious dance numbers—including the era’s requisite ballet—are demanding. Reprise! once again calls on Lee Martino to stage these numbers in a ridiculously small window of time.

“I’ve worked with Lee many times,” Michetti says with enthusiasm. “I love working with her, and we have a sort of shorthand in terms of communication, which is great.” He explains that Martino considers the legendary Kidd—who died this past Christmas week at 92—to be one of her primary influences. “She loves the athleticism of his choreographic style. And while she’s certainly inventing [choreography] fresh for this production, most of it is inspired by at least the spirit of Michael Kidd. There is, I think, a sort of unspoken tribute to him happening in this production.”

With themes of nuclear testing and the dangers of baby formula—all told with comic-strip lightness, of course—Li’l Abner is very much a product of its Cold War era. While Reprise! uprooted Damn Yankees from its 1950s setting for a production last fall, Michetti is sticking with the original period for Abner.

“We’ve done a little trimming to remove some of the references that in the period would have been really obvious to people, but now are too obtuse,” he shares, “but my hope is that we make it clear to people that we are doing it as a loving Valentine to that period.”

Li’l Abner runs Feb. 5-17 at the Freud Playhouse on the UCLA Campus. For tickets and more information, visit www.reprise.org.