National Lampoon's Lemmings
Encyclopedia
National Lampoon's Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi
, Christopher Guest
, and Chevy Chase
. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly
. The show opened at the Village Gate on January 25th 1973, and ran for 350 performances.
The first half of the show was sketch comedy
; the second half was a mock rock festival, "Woodshuck: Three Days of Peace, Love and Death", a parody of "Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music". "Woodshuck" featured spoofs of Woodstock performers, including Joe Cocker
, James Taylor
and Joan Baez
, as well as a parody of Bob Dylan
and songs performed by fictional groups (e.g. the "Motown Manifestoes" singing Papa was a Running Dog Lackey of the Bourgeoisie
).
The songs from the show were subsequently issued as a record album. A video of one of the original performances, National Lampoon: Lemmings: Dead in Concert 1973, was eventually made available several decades later.
Later cast replacements:
art by Melinda Bordelon
.
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
, Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
, and Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly
Sean Kelly (writer)
Sean Kelly is a Canadian author, writer, humorist, voice actor and teacher who was originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but who currently lives in the United States. From 1970 to 1984 he was an editor and one of the main writers for National Lampoon...
. The show opened at the Village Gate on January 25th 1973, and ran for 350 performances.
The first half of the show was sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
; the second half was a mock rock festival, "Woodshuck: Three Days of Peace, Love and Death", a parody of "Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music". "Woodshuck" featured spoofs of Woodstock performers, including Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
and Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, as well as a parody of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and songs performed by fictional groups (e.g. the "Motown Manifestoes" singing Papa was a Running Dog Lackey of the Bourgeoisie
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a soul song, written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong as a single for Motown act The Undisputed Truth in 1971...
).
The songs from the show were subsequently issued as a record album. A video of one of the original performances, National Lampoon: Lemmings: Dead in Concert 1973, was eventually made available several decades later.
Cast
The cast included:- John BelushiJohn BelushiJohn Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
- Chevy ChaseChevy ChaseCornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
- Garry GoodrowGarry GoodrowGarry Goodrow is an American actor best known for his role in the original stage production of the Obie Award-winning play The Connection, and as one of the original cast members of The Committee. In The Connection Goodrow played the young, intense, morose, would-be jazz musician Ernie, a heroin...
- Christopher GuestChristopher GuestChristopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
- Paul JacobsPaul Jacobs (musician)Paul Ross Jacobs is an American Emmy award winning composer and musician.-Biography:Jacobs was born in New York City. He attended the Juilliard School and as a child, played at Carnegie Hall, on television and for Radio Free Europe. After watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he started...
- Mary-Jennifer Mitchell
- Alice PlaytenAlice PlaytenAlice Playten was an American actress and singer.-Life and career:Born Alice Plotkin in New York City, Playten began her career in the Broadway musical Gypsy...
Later cast replacements:
- Rhonda Coullet
- Nate Herman
- Bob Hoban
- Zal YanovskyZal YanovskyZalman "Zal" Yanovsky was a Canadian rock musician. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky. He played lead guitar and sang for the Lovin' Spoonful, a rock band which he founded with John Sebastian in 1964...
Writers
The writers included:- Christopher GuestChristopher GuestChristopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
– music, musical arrangements - Paul JacobsPaul Jacobs (musician)Paul Ross Jacobs is an American Emmy award winning composer and musician.-Biography:Jacobs was born in New York City. He attended the Juilliard School and as a child, played at Carnegie Hall, on television and for Radio Free Europe. After watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he started...
– music, musical arrangements, musical director - John Belushi
- Sean KellySean Kelly (writer)Sean Kelly is a Canadian author, writer, humorist, voice actor and teacher who was originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but who currently lives in the United States. From 1970 to 1984 he was an editor and one of the main writers for National Lampoon...
- Tony HendraTony HendraTony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
- David Axelrod
- Anne BeattsAnne Beatts- Early life:Born to parents Beatts describes as "beatniks", Beatts grew to have what has been called an "aggressive, dark sensibility" which she later put to use in the world of comedy. Growing up in Somers, New York she later attended McGill University....
- Henry BeardHenry BeardHenry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
- John Boni
- Doug KenneyDouglas KenneyDouglas C. Kenney was an American writer and actor who co-founded National Lampoon magazine in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material.-Childhood:...
- P.J. O'Rourke
- Zal YanovskyZal YanovskyZalman "Zal" Yanovsky was a Canadian rock musician. Born in Toronto, he was the son of political cartoonist Avrom Yanovsky. He played lead guitar and sang for the Lovin' Spoonful, a rock band which he founded with John Sebastian in 1964...
Acts
- Welcome to the Woodchuck Festival: Three Days of Peace, Love, and Death; plus band introductions throughout - John Belushi
- Freud, Marx, Engels, and JungJungCarl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.Jung may also refer to:* Jung * JUNG, Java Universal Network/Graph Framework-See also:...
, performing Lemmings Lament. - A parody of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and the songs WoodstockWoodstock (song)"Woodstock" is a song about the Woodstock Music and Art Festival of 1969.Joni Mitchell wrote the song from what she had heard from then-boyfriend, Graham Nash, about the festival. She had not been there herself, since she was told it would be more advantageous to appear on The Dick Cavett Show by...
, Long Time GoneLong Time Gone"Long Time Gone" is a country song by Darrell Scott, published on the 2000 album Real Time which Scott recorded together with Tim O'Brien.-Content:...
, and others. (Also referred to in performance as Freud, PavlovPavlov-People:*Pavlov *Ivan Pavlov, a psychologist famous for his experiment in classical conditioning.-Places:*in the Czech Republic:**Pavlov **Pavlov **Pavlov **Pavlov...
, AdlerAdlerThe term Adler, the German word for the bird of prey "eagle", is both the last name of many people and an emblematic bird featured on many blazons since the feudal age, including the present German Bundeswappen and at times on the flags of Austria and Germany...
, and JungJungCarl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology.Jung may also refer to:* Jung * JUNG, Java Universal Network/Graph Framework-See also:...
) - Bob Dylan, performing "Positively Wall Street," a parody of several of his styles, with the title taken from "Positively 4th StreetPositively 4th Street"Positively 4th Street" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, first recorded by Dylan in New York City on July 29, 1965. It was released as a single by Columbia Records on September 7, 1965, reaching #1 on Canada's RPM chart, #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #8 on the UK Singles Chart...
" - Christopher Guest - Goldie Oldie, a parody of old, 1950's-style performers, performing "Pizza Pie" - Alice Playten
- John Denver, performing "Colorado" - Chevy Chase
- Joan Baez, performing Pull the Triggers, Niggers, a parody of her protest songs and of Dylan's song George Jackson, in particular. Listed on the album cover as Pull the Tregroes, Negroes. - Mary Jennifer Mitchell (later replaced by Rhonda Coullet)
- Joe Cocker, Lonely at the Bottom - Belushi as Cocker, Paul Jacobs as Leon RussellLeon RussellClaude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
on piano. - James Taylor, Highway Toes - Christopher Guest
- Motown Manifestoes" singing Papa was a Running Dog Lackey of the BourgeoisiePapa Was a Rollin' Stone"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a soul song, written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong as a single for Motown act The Undisputed Truth in 1971...
, with most of its lines taken from The Communist ManifestoThe Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto, originally titled Manifesto of the Communist Party is a short 1848 publication written by the German Marxist political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It has since been recognized as one of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the...
. - Donovan, Nirvana Banana - Zal Yanovsky (later addition to the show).
- Joni Mitchell, I Do For You - Alice Playton (replaced by Rhonda Coullet).
- Farmer Yassir (parody of Max Yasgur, owner of the land on which Woodstock was held), greeting the audience - Gary Goodrow
- Megadeath, a parody of heavy metal groups, who end their act by turning the amps so loud that the audience dies.
- "Jackie Christ, Superstar". Parody of "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Jesus is a stand up comedian, while John Belushi played King Herod.
- "DeteriorataDeteriorataDeteriorata is a famous parody of San Francisco radio and television personality Les Crane's spoken word recording of Desiderata. It was written by Tony Hendra. It was recorded by National Lampoon as part of their National Lampoon Radio Dinner album of 1972...
", A Tony Hendra parody of Les Crane's recording of DesiderataDesiderataDesiderata is a 1927 prose poem by American writer Max Ehrmann...
. - "Defeat Day" - a parody of America's first military defeat in the Vietnam WarVietnam WarThe Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. "Put all your troubles in a nickle bag and smile, smile, smile."
Cast recording
A cast recording of the show was released in 1973, with album coverAlbum cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
art by Melinda Bordelon
Melinda Bordelon
Melinda Jane Bordelon was an American painter and illustrator whose professional work adorned magazine covers, articles, and advertisements—as well as album covers, book covers, and video game packaging—produced from the early 1970s through the 1990s...
.
Side One
- Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Lemmings Lament
Lead vocal by Paul Jacobs (as David Crosby); instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Paul Jacobs and Sean Kelly. - Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Positively Wall Street
Lead vocal by Christopher Guest (as Bob Dylan); instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Paul Jacobs, Christopher Guest, and Sean Kelly. - Weather Person
Performed by Garry Goodrow - Pizza Man
Lead vocal by Alice Playten (as Goldie Oldie); instruments and back-up vocals by the cast; written by Christopher Guest, Sean Kelly, and Tony Hendra - Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Colorado
Lead vocal by Chevy Chase; instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Christopher Guest, Sean Kelly, and Tony Hendra - Richie Havens
Performed by Christopher Guest (as Richie Havens) - Crowd Rain Chant
Performed by John Belushi
Side Two
- Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Papa Was a Running Dog Lackey of the Bourgeoisie
Lead vocal by Paul Jacobs; instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Paul Jacobs and Tony Hendra - All-Star Dead Band
Performed by John Belushi - Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Highway Toes
Lead vocal by Christopher Guest (as James Taylor); instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Christopher Guest and Sean Kelly - Hell's Angel
Performed by Chevy Chase - Stage Announcements
Performed by John Belushi - Farmer Yassir
Performed by Garry Goodrow - Lonely at the Bottom
Lead vocal by John Belushi (as Joe Cocker); instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Paul Jacobs and John Belushi - Megagroupie
Performed by Alice Playten - Megadeath
Lead vocal by John Belushi; instruments and backup vocals by the cast; written by Paul Jacobs and Sean Kelly
External links
- Original Off-Broadway Cast, National Lampoon's Lemmings (Blue Thumb, 1973; Decca Records, 2002)
- National Lampoon's Lemmings at the Internet Off Broadway DatabaseLortel ArchivesThe Lortel Archives, or the Internet Off-Broadway Database is an online database that catalogues theatre productions shown off-Broadway.The archives are named in honor of actress and theatrical producer Lucille Lortel.-See also:...