Current obsession: The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

[Zamedy154]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 7:47am

Perhaps a very underrated score. I LOVE "A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place." Such a great, catchy, fun, upbeat song that also establishes character and advances the plot. Obsessed with the actress who plays Miss Mona.

Any other fans? How well was this received at the time?

Updated On: 8/29/20 at 07:47 AM

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 10:18am

It won 2 Tony Awards: Best Featured Actor (Henderson Forsthye for Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd) and Featured Actress (Carlin Glynn for Miss Mona Stanley) plus was nominated for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography which should be a glimpse on how it was received. It ran 4 years, so it had a nice healthy run.

Carlin Glynn is widow to Peter Masterson, who co-wrote and co-directed (with Tommy Tune) the original Broadway production of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS. Glynn is also mother to actress Mary Stuart Masterson and mostly remembered as Molly Ringwald’s mom in the 1983 John Hughes classic SIXTEEN CANDLES.



 

[quizking101]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 10:32am

Zamedy154 said: "Perhaps a very underrated score. I LOVE "A Lil' Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place." Such a great, catchy, fun, upbeat song that also establishes character and advances the plot. Obsessed with the actress who plays Miss Mona.

Any other fans? How well was this received at the time?"

They’ve been trying to bring this back for YEARS. Last I heard was they were trying to get a revival with Kristin Chenoweth as Mona up and running. I’m very much curious how this would play out today in the “Me Too” era in terms of the themes. I still think the whole show theme about moralizing people’s sexual behavior is evergreen

I’ve never listened to the OBC, but I’ve looped the Dolly Parton film version over and over again - she could not have been more perfect casting at the time. (Though I still will NEVER understand how Charles Durning ended up with an Oscar nomination for that movie.)

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 3:13pm

I love Carol Hall's country-pop score to ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.'' Besides ''A Lil Ole BittyPissant Country Place,'' it's chockfull of fun and infectious tunes, like ''Texas Has a Whorehouse in It,'' ''The Aggie Song'' and ''Twenty Four Hours of Lovin'.'' But it also has poignant songs, such as ''Doatsey Mae'' and ''Hard Candy Christmas.'' 

The show got nominated for Best Musical, but not for Hall's Score, and that's crazy. I can only speculate that her music was too country for the tastes of the Tony nominators, which leaned more traditional musical-theater. Instead, they nominated Stephen Sondheim's ''Sweeney Todd'' and Eubie Blake's ''Eubie!,'' plus two scores from flop shows: Jerry Herman's ''The Grand Tour'' and Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner's ''Carmelina.'' (As a result, this category was all-male; Hall could've been a rare female Tony nominee who wrote both the music and lyrics.)

Hall's songs have been recorded and sung by Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Chita Rivera, Dolly Parton and many others. I heartily recommend getting her CD, ''Hallways.'' She sings ''Hard Candy Christmas'' on it with her daughter, and the album features many cabaret and Broadway stars: Tom Andersen, Scott Coulter, Tim Di Pasqua, Lesley Gore, Sally Mayes, Amanda McBroom & Carol Woods. 

Updated On: 8/29/20 at 03:13 PM

[Owen22]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 3:19pm

It's a great little show with a tight book that balances the line be tween satire and human reality, makes a relevant-today comment on legislating "morality" and has some truly terrific tunes.  I am perplexed it's never been revived as a star vehicle, as the movie is well known, and even though Glynn was nominated in the wrong category, Miss Mona is a ROLE!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 3:24pm

Here’s the fabulous Emily Skinner as Miss Mona and a line-up of recognizable Broadway ladies from the 2006 one-night-only Actors Fund concert-staging which pretty much captures the look and feel of the original 1978 Broadway production, which also used that 2-level scaffolding set and an onstage band.

 

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 3:56pm

''Glynn was nominated in the wrong category''

You're right, of course. Miss Mona is a Leading role, but Carlin Glynn was billed below the title, so the Tonys left her in Featured. Had she been bumped up to Leading, however, Glynn probably would've lost that year to Angela Lansbury (''Sweeney Todd'' ), so she might've been happier to win a Tony, even if it was for Featured Actress. 

''Whorehouse'' was a big hit at the 46th Street Theatre, racking up nearly 1,600 performances between 1978 and March 1982. But when it reopened at the Eugene O'Neill in a return engagement in May 1982, with Glynn & Delores Hall, it ran for only 63 performances.

By the way, Ann-Margret did a national tour of ''Whorehouse'' in 2001.

As for why ''Whorehouse'' hasn't gotten a major Broadway revival, who knows? But the high-profile failure of ''The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public,'' its flop 1994 sequel, couldn't have helped matters.

Updated On: 8/29/20 at 03:56 PM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 5:05pm

Fun fact: when Carlin Glynn recreated her performance in the London production she became the first performer to win a Tony and an Olivier for the same role. At the Oliviers, she (correctly) won in the Lead category.

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 5:23pm

The Ann-Margret cast recording is actually my favourite

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 5:38pm

Here’s a fantastic interview with Carlin Glynn shortly after WHOREHOUSE opened on Broadway in 1978.

 

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 5:42pm

And here’s Carlin Glynn performing “Little Bitty Pissant...” on the show’s closing night at the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers Theatre). A nice archive of the original Broadway production.

 

[ArtMan]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 6:29pm

I saw the tour with Ann-Margret.  I remember absolutely nothing about the show.  I was too much in awe of seeing one of my all time favorite performers in person.  Then after the show, having an up close and personal experience with her with a stage door "crowd" of 3.  I told her when I was 6, Santa Claus at Frisch's Big Boy asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  Even though I was Jewish, I said a date with Ann-Margret.  She responded with her laugh.  Not sure if she clocked me or not.  Even at 60, she was still Ann "Kitten With A Whip" Margret.

[ggersten]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 8:18pm

I saw the National Tour in SF in 1980(?)and I remember little. Without looking for my review, I think I liked it but felt it was slight. I mostly remember the Governor’s song.

A midwest local community theatre did a production in 2005 that nearly killed the company as many patrons were offended and stopped coming to later shows. The company was mystified about what those people thought a show with “whorehouse” in the title was going to be like (and reportedly some ensemble actions reportedly got a little or perhaps a lot risque even though ‘there’s nothing dirty going on’)

[morosco]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 8:48pm

I saw the National Tour in SF in 1980(?)and I remember little.

Was this the tour that starred Alexis Smith?

[gypsy101]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 9:00pm

Hard Candy Christmas is a cute song, we sang it in my chorus a couple holiday concerts ago.

was the 2006 Actors Fund concert their last show? i enjoyed their productions of Hair and Dreamgirls

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 8/29/20 at 10:12pm

Alexis Smith played Miss Mona in the first U.S. national tour, Sept. 1979- Feb. 1981, visiting major cities, like L.A. and San Francisco. She candidly told the L.A. Times that she did the 14-month tour for the money.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/30/20 at 2:31am

Check out the book “Whorehouse Papers” by Larry King for a neat telling of the making of the show.

 

[joevitus]

Posted: 8/30/20 at 5:06am

I second that. As a person, King isn't entirely likable--he's possibly racist and clearly homophobic and that comes through very clearly--but he's also incredibly funny, and he has the freedom to say whatever the hell he wants because he main career was never in the theater: thus this is one of the most candid of all backstage stories in terms of the process, backstabbing and attitude that can be found on display during the making of a Broadway show. 

Updated On: 8/30/20 at 05:06 AM

[temms]

Posted: 8/31/20 at 2:33pm

Super arcane question - I really like the movie arrangement of "Little Bitty Pissant/Rules". I actually like it better than the show version, which is not my usual opinion. I know Dolly wrote new songs, but there's a verse in "Little Bitty" that's not in the stage play. In place of "I don't hire no married girls/They're not on the ball" it goes "We get simple farmers/Local businessmen/Congress folk from Austin/Young boys lookin' for sin/Now we used to get a lot of roughnecks when the oil boom was high/But payday'd get a little rowdy, thank God the field ran dry!"

Are those Carol or Dolly? There's a line of dialogue in the play which is almost exactly that, so it was clearly adapted from the show script. I actually like the new lyrics better. Anyone know any details?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/31/20 at 6:49pm

temms said: "Super arcane question - I really like the movie arrangement of "Little Bitty Pissant/Rules". I actually like it better than the show version, which is not my usual opinion. I know Dolly wrote new songs, but there's a verse in "Little Bitty" that's not in the stage play. In place of "I don't hire no married girls/They're not on the ball" it goes "We get simple farmers/Local businessmen/Congress folk from Austin/Young boys lookin' for sin/Now we used to get a lot of roughnecks when the oil boom was high/But payday'd get a little rowdy, thank God the field ran dry!"

Are those Carol or Dolly? There's a line of dialogue in the play which is almost exactly that, so it was clearly adapted from the show script. I actually like the new lyrics better. Anyone know any details?"

For what it's worth, I looked it up at IMDb and the song is fully credited to Carol Hall. It may have been a Hall re-write for the film. I find no evidence that Dolly had a hand in the re-writing of the lyrics. 

[Kad]

Posted: 9/1/20 at 11:56am

I love the score, and find the way it gives big memorable numbers to featured characters that don't have a lot of bearing on the plot kind of charming.

Considering the dearth of women composers on Broadway that continues to this day, it's odd that Carol Hall feels so overlooked for creating this score. Perhaps she was eclipsed by Dolly Parton putting such a stamp on "Hard Candy Christmas" and the material generally.

Updated On: 9/1/20 at 11:56 AM

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 9/1/20 at 3:35pm

''Considering the dearth of women composers on Broadway that continues to this day, it's odd that Carol Hall feels so overlooked for creating this score.''

It's sad that Carol Hall never got her due for this score. As I posted earlier in this thread, I thought she should've gotten a Tony nomination for it. Maybe it was ''too country'' for the nominators. Or maybe she got slighted for being a newcomer. She wasn't ''one of the boys.'' 

For the record, Hall's work on ''Whorehouse'' won her the 1978 Drama Desk Awards for Best Lyrics and Best Score. (For the latter, she tied with Cy Coleman for ''On the Twentieth Century.'' )

Sadly, Hall just passed away in 2018. I wish she could've written more scores for Broadway, besides the two she did. The 1st ''Whorehouse'' was such a hit. Was she ever offered other shows to do? Did anyone see her 1986 Off-Broadway musical ''To Whom It May Concern''?

Updated On: 9/1/20 at 03:35 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 9/1/20 at 11:43pm

She had money, so she may simply not have had the drive to continue pursuing a career as a theater composer (though Tommy Tune had money, too, or at least came from it, and boy did he have the drive). She also wasn't primarily a stage composer, anyway (she did some of the songs for Free To Be You and Me), so she might not have enjoyed the collaborative process (she clearly didn't get along with Larry L. King, but I'm not sure that says anything).

I think of her much like I think of Charlie Smalls. One great show and done.

[John Adams]

Posted: 9/2/20 at 8:35am

"...Whorehouse" was my first contracted acting gig. I loved every minute of being in that show (which is a LOT of fun to perform), and cried like a baby when the show closed.

My favorite line flub (that I still like to use even now, some 30+ years later) was when our Linda Lou had a brain lapse during a Sunday matinee, and went up on the phrase "the Jr. Prom". Thinking as quickly as she could, she simply recycled the first example she'd sung.

So.... that Sunday matinee audience of mostly seniors got to hear Linda Lou say: "No kissin' on the mouth - this ain't the Marine Corp" :)