Moira McFadden

Celebrating its 36th Anniversary, Outfest - the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization promoting equality by creating, sharing, and protecting LGBTQ stories on the screen - today announced the complete programming lineup for the 2018 Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival presented by HBO. The nation's leading LGBTQ festival will be held July 12-22, 2018.

Back in the 50s, the era that was innocence personified, Broadway musicals were written to entertain first. Of course, Stephen Sondheim and other more serious composers were beginning to change the face of the American musical with the goal to enlighten, but shows like Li'l Abner, with book by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank, lyrics by Johnny Mercer & music by Gene De Paul and based on Al Capp's 1934 comic strip, showed us the wild hillbilly lifestyle to make us laugh rather than think. Underneath the surface, to be sure, there is political satire and an uplifting message about appreciating the worth of that lesser known patch of American culture, kind of like what 60sTV audiences found in The Beverly Hillbillies.