Repertory: Laughing at Lester

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Optimistic pessimists who believe that regional theater is the nation's dramatic hope can find some strong supporting evidence in Atlanta. There, a three-year-old shoestring repertory group that calls itself Theater Atlanta has been delighting sell-out audiences with a sharp, snappy satire that is as regional as the round little restaurant owner who is its subject: Governor Lester Maddox. Broadway, fortunately, is not so dead as to ignore a show that is pulling customers to West Peachtree Street from 30 miles around. Last week Edward Padula, producer of Bye Bye Birdie and A Joyful Noise, announced that in January he will open Red, White and Maddox in Manhattan with the original cast.

The original cast means Jim Garner, 39, a Tennessee-born ex-radio actor and program director, who scored another smash success last season in the title role of Atlanta's production of MacBird. His is a deft caricature of Lester Maddox as a bland, eupeptic nincompoop given to chats with God. Dressed in blue knee pants and jacket, a Buster Brown collar and a big red tie, Garner prances blithely across the stage, wagging his head, whistling his sibilants, letting his tongue loll inanely between parted lips. The portrayal produces whoops of delighted recognition from audiences, who know the original all too well.

The story traces Maddox's rise to Governor from small-time proprietor of the Pickrick fried chicken chain ("Happy white folks at my tables, happy nigras in my kitchen"), his successful bid for the presidency in 1973, and his war against Russia, in which he personally exterminates everybody but himself—even his pal, God, whose place he is only too happy to fill.

Red, White and Maddox was written by Jay Broad, managing director of Theater Atlanta, and Don Tucker, a veteran composer for cabarets and industrial shows. It remains to be seen, though, how well this regional product will travel. Another of the show's songs is ominously titled The City's a Great Place to Visit if You Don't Want to Live.