If he were to deliver the line “And I mean it” in a traditional play, Joe Perkowski might just speak it.

In a traditional musical, he might say it louder or perhaps sing it.

But in “Li’l Abner” at Yorktown High School this weekend, when the senior who plays the corrupt Gen. Bullmoose delivers the line, “I have to shout it and jump up and down.”

“Li’l Abner” is based on Al Capp’s long-running comic strip. As a cartoon musical, the actions, songs and characters are larger than life, larger than even musical-theater life.

“It’s a lot of fun,” says Perkowski, “because it expands the boundaries of what you’re able to do. Going too far is not far enough.”

This is a big Broadway musical comedy, says director Tom Arduini, putting the emphasis on “broad” – as in “large.” The cast is large – about 60 kids, including eighth-graders borrowed from the middle school – and the acting is stylized.

“There’s not a lot of subtext here,” he says. ”’Annie’ has more depth than this show.”

Still, Arduini says he chooses musicals to serve an educational goal, and kids can learn something from “Abner” – about how songs can advance character, about a different style of acting and about several styles of dance.

This year’s seniors have been in a concept musical (“Over Here”), a traditional, dramatic big-book musical (“Carnival”), a contemporary musical (“Grease”) and now “Abner,” a big Broadway comedy.

“Li’l Abner” brings Capp’s Dogpatch, U.S.A., to the stage, complete with characters who will be recognizable to the older members of the audience: Li’l Abner, Daisy Mae and Sadie Hawkins, who chases her man ‘til she catches him.

The plot is too convoluted to relate here, but it involves politicians, big business, a secret potion, atomic tests, eminent domain and a host of issues that are still in the news 50 years after the musical first hit Broadway.

Jess Cunnington, 17, a senior, says the cast learned to approach their characters in a different way.

“At the beginning, everyone was trying to look into the characters, thinking that they’re so deep – but they’re really not,” she says. “We had a really hard time, but a great time, working into being cartoon characters, because that’s pretty much what it’s all about.”

For example, she says, instead of standing up straight with his arms at his sides, Abner keeps his arms out in an exaggerated pose.

“It looks ridiculous when I’m standing two feet away from him,” she says, “but we sat down and watched it from the audience, and it looks great.

“Everyone is saying, ‘That over the top? Really?’”

You really can’t play it too big, Cunnington says, which requires a leap of faith she admits she hadn’t fully made in the final week of rehearsal.

“I think I’m still holding back a little because I really don’t know where the line is,” she says. “They keep telling us ‘We’ll tell you when it’s too much.’”

The audience will love the political humor, Cunnington predicts, and people in Yorktown will appreciate the lines about atomic testing, as they live a stone’s throw from the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.

The musical lampoons hillbilly life and takes plenty of shots at politicians, says senior Andrea Lennox, who plays Appassionata von Climax, Gen. Bullmoose’s steamy mistress who is brought in to seduce Abner.

“The play has a message: The all-American meaning of family and tradition and the value of hard work and fun, in moderation,” Lennox says.

But the message comes at you slyly, she adds. “It’s kind of like ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ You’re watching this magical show and you don’t realize you’re learning all about the symbolism of politics and what’s really going on,” she says.

Appassionata is “the face of politics, there to do the dirty work but presenting herself in this beautiful way and glorifying corruption.”

“There are celebrities who do that and good-looking politicians who do that and I look at my part in that way,” she says.

“What my character says is a whole lot of nothing,” Lennox says, “which is what politicians say, but it’s the way they say it.”

Choreographer Bernard Monroe – a self-described “hard taskmaster” – works the cast over and over, telling them: “If you feel a little tired, you should. That’s how much energy it should take.”

“We’re asking them to move in a way that’s foreign to them,” Monroe says. “It is a musical that was written in the ‘50s and the way people moved and danced in the ‘50s is completely different than today.

“We’re also asking them to move in a way that’s based on a comic strip that none of them have ever read or ever seen.”

Monroe says his goal is to have the dancers grasp the style of choreography and present the essence of characters that people still know and remember.

And he means it.

Photo by Dave Kennedy/The Journal News: Yorktown High School students work on their steps during a rehearsal for the upcoming production of “Li’l Abner.”

‘LI’L ABNER’
Where: Yorktown High School, 2727 Crompond Road, Yorktown.
When: At 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; at 2 p.m., Sunday.
Tickets: $10.
Call: 914-243-8051.
With: Benjamin Ashe, Jessica Cunnington, Lauren Corrado, James Bizzarro, Josh Crawford, Eric Maiello, David Pearlroth, Anthony Melillo, Alex Moore, Sean Cunnion, Emily Giergerich, Dan De Bonis, Sean McAuliffe, Alex Nicolato, Peter Frank, Arthur Xia, Anthony Todd, Robert Graham, Joseph Perkowski, Shannon Profita, Jennifer Monahan, Tyler Lipperman, Andrea Lennox, Mark Nahkla, John Nelson, Jillian Wilson, Mike Moskowitz, Samantha Grossman, Nicolette Lawrence, Jordan Fuentes, Lauren Wagner, Molly Lindsay, Taylor Montague, Alexa DeFina, Emily Roberts, Jennifer Monahan, Brianna Vaccaro, Chelsea Bunyaviroch, Michael Wittenberg, David Stavans, Andrew Grenci, Joey Sialiano, Matt Lennox, John Orlowski, John Fennessy, Mark Hellerman, Evan Palumbo, Sean Jordan, Glenn DeAngelis, Eric Murphy, Vivianna DePole, John Tendy, Elise Cecil, John Franczak, Nick Spezio, Ethan Fervan, Brianna Lampert, Ilana Copel, Adrian Zidi, Leo Torrente, Kaitlyn Cohen, Katie Nicolato, Logan Miley, Liz Frank, Samantha Russell, Evan Kuras, Carolyn Lieberman, Brian Denu, Jimmy Buckley, Andrew Lombardi, Chris Chang, Mike Greene, Tom Tillistrand, Derek Toub, Manu Kumar.