The popular Broadway musical "Li'l Abner" will debut this weekend at Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville.

The performances will be 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 13-14. There will also be a matinee performance at 2 p.m. this Sunday. Athenian Players Theatre and Berean Community Players are producing the show with sponsorship from Hocking Valley Bank.

The play features the town of Dogpatch, U.S.A., whose citizens are mostly either Yokums or Scraggs. Mammy and Pappy Yokum (Linda Watkins and Charlie Smith) have a handsome and wholesome son, Abner Yokum (Aaron Elsaesser), who is more interested in fishing than in returning the affections of the beautiful Daisy Mae Scragg (Emily Maluski).

The romantic plot is complicated by a government plan to use Dogpatch for nuclear testing. Dogpatch has been identified as the most worthless place in America, so there will be no loss if it is blown up. The Dogpatchers try to save their town by showing the things that make it special to them. In the process, the government learns about Mammy Yokum's Yokumberry Tonic - a wonder drug that builds muscular bodies such as Abner's.

News of the tonic reaches General Bullmoose (Dean Barker), whose childhood dream is to own all the money in the world. To get the tonic, Bullmoose sends Appassionata Von Climax (Dianna Jarvis) to enter the annual Sadie Hawkins Day race, where a woman can marry whatever man she catches. With the connivance of Evil Eye Fleagle (Sam Witmer), Appassionata plans to catch and marry Abner in a ceremony performed by Marryin' Sam (Joe Balding).  After the wedding, Abner's suicide will be "arranged." Daisy Mae has to catch Abner first, while managing not to catch "The World's Dirtiest Wrassler," the amorous Earthquake McGoon (David Whealey).  

The Sadie Hawkins Day race is made more challenging for the men because, for a price, Available Jones (Chris Neumann) has procured the services of a cousin, Stupefyin' Jones (Valerie Schrader). Stupefyin' is so petrifyingly, drop-dead gorgeous that men who glimpse her literally freeze dead in their tracks, making them easy targets for the women who are chasing them.

The show also features actors Quenna Stewart, Sam Witmer, Valerie Schrader, Alison Bartlett, Jane Adams, Chaz Canter, B. J. Heidlebaugh, Bruce Jones, and Suzanne Ragg. Additional parts are played by Neal Nesbitt, Sandy Russell, Roger Springer, Colin Hull, Dan Yeatts, Mackenzie Perry, and Courtney Hull.

The show is directed by Sylvia Abbott, with music direction by Lynn Sullivan and choreography by Annah Korpi.
Well-known songs include "If I Had My Druthers," "Jubilation T. Cornpone," "Namely You," "Love in a Home," "Progress Is the Root of All Evil," "Rag Off'n the Bush" and "The Country's in the Very Best of Hands."
Tickets can be purchased from the Stuart's Opera House ticket office at 740-753-1924 or online at www.stuartsoperahouse.org.

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