BY LEE PFEIFFER
The mania for adapting non-musical TV shows and movies as musical productions on Broadway continues with the news that the 1960s sitcom "Green Acres" will be brought to the Great White Way with more tunes than just composer Vic Mizzy's classic theme song, which seemingly every American of a certain age can still sing to perfection. The show was a major hit back in the day and starred Eddie Albert as a New York attorney who became fed up with the congestion and stress of living in Manhattan. He relocates to a small town called Hooterville where the naive city slicker finds that the farm he has purchased is a dilapidated mess. Much of the fun centered on his gorgeous but not-so-bright wife played by Eva Gabor, who longs to return to the big city. Both she and her husband toil on the farm while still clad in the same attire they wore on Park Avenue. The show, which is still shown in re-runs, was created by Paul Henning, the mastermind behind two similar sitcoms, "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction". Cast members from each show would turn up as the same characters across the three series. In watching the series today, I've been impressed at just how funny it still is, thanks to the wonderful performances of Albert and Gabor as well as the many great character actors who were regulars on the series: Alvy Moore, Pat Buttram, Tom Lester, Frank Cady among them. The fish-out-of-water premise for a comedy extends back long before "Green Acres". Cary Grant tried to adjust to country living in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" and Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert did the same in "The Egg and I". In later years, Tom Hanks starred in the similarly-themed "The Money Pit". Whether contemporary audiences who don't even remember "Green Acres" will find its gentle style of humor entertaining is the big question. Let's just hope that keep that opening theme song.
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