Political twists in updated ‘Duck’

“Everything’s Ducky,” a musical seen at La Mirada Theatre in 2000, has become “Lucky Duck,” scheduled for the Old Globe in San Diego, July 16 to Aug. 15.

Approximately half of the original show’s score and only 40% of its script will remain from what was seen at La Mirada and four other theaters in the Bay Area and Midwest.

The show is still based on the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Ugly Duckling.” But co-librettist Jeffrey Hatcher says the new director, John Rando of “Urinetown” fame, “brought some particular insights about why some of the great fables work on so many levels.” As a result, “Lucky Duck” will have more political content, more “contemporary resonance,” Hatcher says. “It won’t simply trade on celebrity stargazing,” which was the subject of many jokes in “Everything’s Ducky.”

The show depicts conflicts between birds and carnivores, and “in our most pompous moments,” Hatcher says, “we’re thinking of the Israelis and Palestinians and the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.” The structure will be somewhat streamlined, especially in the second act. Rando is “a very good hall monitor,” according to Hatcher.

Hatcher, composer Henry Krieger (“Dreamgirls”) and lyricist and co-librettist Bill Russell (“Side Show”) hope “Lucky Duck” will eventually play New York, in either a small Broadway or large off-Broadway theater. Their show is not to be confused with “Honk!,” another musical based on “The Ugly Duckling” that played two Los Angeles County venues in 2001.

Why change the name? “Everything’s Ducky” sounded to Bill a little too twee, too English,” Hatcher says. “You sound like Terry-Thomas when you say it.”

-- Don Shirley