National Lampoon Lemmings

National Lampoon Lemmings

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 25, 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 and Joan Baez, as well as a parodies of Bob Dylan and James Taylor, plus 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.