ARCHY & MEHITABEL (Music by George Kleinsinger: Book by Joe Darion and Mel Brooks: Lyrics by Joe Darion: Based on stories by Don Marquis: Produced on Broadway as Shinbone Alley) Broadway Theatre 13 April 1957 (49 perfs) SYNOPSIS The cartoon characters of Archy, the prim and proper cockroach, and his idol the hedonistic alley cat, Mehitabel, whom Archy is trying to reform, are the main protagonists in this cool, jazz look at the seamier side of the big city. STORY Act I The place and time are arbitrary. It's here and now or there and then, but definitely the wrong side of the tracks in a big town. There's a set. Sort of. That comes and goes. Maybe an office. Maybe an alley. And the cast? Cats! An invisible newsman-narrator. A cockroach. And several ladybirds thrown in for good measure. And the point of view? Down here. Way down here ... as seen through the eyes of the somewhat vertically challenged "Archy," the rather shy and sensitive cockroach. The desk, the chair, the telephone, the typewriter are enormous ... as though we were dropped into a newspaper office the size of Mount Rushmore. The voice-over describes the place in the first song and we see little Archy dancing from key to key on the enormous typewriter keyboard. (Surely, somewhere in the Warner Brothers' archives there's a Busby Berkeley sequence we can consult for reference.) Archy and the newspaperman exchange notes. Archy addresses him as "boss" and the voice-over journalist, with respect and appreciation, encourages his little correspondent to leave samples of his literary output (in exchange for a few apple peelings left in the waste paper basket) in the free verse tales that the tiny insect "hops out" on the typewriter keys - all in lower case, mind you, since Archy or "archy" finds it impossible to manipulate the cap and the letter keys simultaneously. What is left in the newsman's typewriter each morning is the saga of the sensitive Archy and his sensual friend Mehitabel, the disreputable alley cat. The first episode sets the scene in Shinbone Alley where Mehitabel and her feline friends are throwing a party, dancing among the rubbish bins and cardboard boxes, singing about their freewheeling life style. Mehitabel admits she's had her ups and downs, but she's still game; a plucky puss is she. The sound of police sirens breaks up the party and the cats scatter. But with a lilting grin, despite her occasional limp and her tattered fur, Mehitabel sings her philosophy. In the midst of the song, Archy wonders if she might not be a bit too toujours gai for her own good but she responds defending her life style. Next we see Archy diligently at work on the typewriter keys pouring out his heart on such issues as philosophy, politics, ethics, and "The Bragging Flea," but his major concern is Mehitabel who admits she's in love again. "Not again" cries Archy as Big Bill, the tom cat, as tough as they come, and obviously the focus of Mehitabel's affection, arrives on the scene and gives the gentle poet-cockroach a hard time. If a cat could bark, Big Bill would bark. But Mehitabel comes to Archy's rescue as Big Bill merely tosses the little critter aside and warns him to keep his distance. His song lists the delights of sexually compulsive cat life on the wild side! Archy leaves the newspaperman a note to the effect that he tried his best to make a respectable cat out of Mehitabel but has failed miserably. To get his mind off her, he composes the "Ballad of Broadway, The Lightning Bug" but the newsman knows Archy's thoughts are still on Mehitabel. No sooner has she run off than she's back in Shinbone Alley, and Archy sings out the joyous news. A rather bitter and bedraggled Mehitabel, jilted by Big Bill, is offered consolation by Archy who now is determined to reform the naughty cat. But she's in no mood for reform. She's in the mood for a song and dance, so they join forces with "Flotsam
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