Li'l Abner is a musical adaptation of Al Capp's long-running comic strip, set in the exaggeratedly backward Appalachian hamlet of Dogpatch, home to the strapping, good-hearted, but famously slow-witted hillbilly hero Li'l Abner Yokum. The plot kicks into gear when the federal government declares Dogpatch the most useless town in America and slates it for destruction as an atomic testing site, spurring the townsfolk into a scramble to prove their worth and save their home. Amid the chaos, the town's most eligible bachelorette, Daisy Mae, pursues the perpetually reluctant Abner during the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race, in which unmarried women chase down the bachelors of their choice. Capp's satirical send-up of rural stereotypes, government bureaucracy, and Cold War anxieties gets a broad, cartoonish musical-comedy treatment, full of colorful characters and comic set pieces drawn straight from the strip. Its energetic score and larger-than-life comic characters made it a popular, high-spirited choice for companies looking for a big ensemble show.

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