WHOREHOUSE The Aggie Song

[morosco]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 1:26am

I had forgotten how they censored the lyrics on the Tony Award broadcast. Tame by today's standards. Great number.
The Aggie Song

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 1:29am

Ok, I'm reading "The Whorehouse Papers" at the moment...and I'm a bit confused. Is Larry King's son actually one of the Aggies in this number? If so...any idea which one?

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 1:34am

That was so great!!! Looks like a fun show Always a fan of the OBCR.

[morosco]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 1:40am

Bradley Clayton King wears jersey #77.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 1:49am

There we go! Thanks Morosco!

I encourage anyone curious about this show to go find a copy of this book...it's hysterical and amazing.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 6:48am

The xylophone censoring is embarrassing but thank you for the link.

I saw the original London production of this at an age where I possibly shouldn't have done. I understood what was going in my head but the fact that I can't actually recall this number suggests it was only in my head that I understood it!

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 10:54am

Wasn't it in London that they moved "Bus From Amarillo" to the end of Act 2, which was then incorporated into the Broadway production?

Edit: I meant to the end of Act 2 from the end of Act 1.

Updated On: 2/15/09 at 10:54 AM

[temms]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 11:07am

husk_charmer, I think it was the other way around. It was originally on Broadway that "Bus From Amarillo" was at the end of Act One - very early on sung by the character of Angel (or Amber, in some drafts) but then shifted to Mona. The finale was a reprise of "20 Fans" with Mona singing a wistful line of "It was just a little ole bitty pissant country place..." and ringing the bell one last time.

But that first act is so long. I think it's a good change to shift "Bus" to Act Two, though I've always wondered how someone boarding a bus in the panhandle got off without taking the ride and somehow ended up in between Austin and Dallas.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 11:39am

Oops, yea, I meant Act 2.

Yea, they took the song from Amber (who was originally Angel, but Edna Milton claimed Angel was one of her favorite girls. I think April was her name briefly, too). Pam Blair eventually left the show for KING OF HEARTS because of this.

The first Act is really long, and the song really is a better fit at the end of Act 2 anyways. And, I feel like the Ann-Margret revival should have switched the places of "A Friend to Me" and "Bus From Amarillo," as "A Friend..." fits better at the end of Act I with what she and Ed Earl are discussing.

And, the first line is "Caught a bus in Amarillo/It was goin' to San Antone." She later sings "We were drivin' on to Cisco/On our way around from Baird/Got a sudden, funny feelin'/And I knew that I was scared." Cisco and Baird are west of Dallas-Fort Worth on I-20, probably an hour out of Abilene. Which would make sense, as the bus would have stopped in Lubbock and then gone to DFW, and then south through Waco to Austin to San Antonio (Which are the big cities). So if one assumes that she didn't eventually travel down towards Austin (Where the Chicken Ranch is supposed to be), then she was stopped between Fort Worth and Abilene...thus rendering the cut song "90 Miles from the State Capital" almost illogical, as Austin is 4 hours from Baird.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 7:30pm

Another change. In the Australian Production tour a short reprise of the Aggie Song was used to open Act 2 to get the act moving.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 2/15/09 at 8:48pm

^ I kinda like that idea...did it work in application?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/4/09 at 3:19am

Just saw this--great example of early Tommy Tune choreography (lotsa techniques he used at least through to Will Rogers Follies). I don't knwo the score at all, can someone post the original uncensored lyrics?

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 9/4/09 at 2:23pm

I'd be interested in seeing an act two open with the Aggie Song. That could work well. Was act one capped off with the Angelette March then?

I might be one of the few who thinks keeping "Bus to Amarillo" in act one worked better for me, if only because I didn't care for it at the end of the show. For me, "A Friend To Me" brought the focus back to Ed Earl and Mona as opposed to just Mona, and it felt like a better place to leave than just focusing on Mona. You could make an argument for either, really, but when I saw "Amarillo" as the last song, ending the show there felt very sudden to me.

[iWannaBEaSedaris]

Posted: 9/4/09 at 9:21pm

I found Little Whorehouse Goes Public recently. I thought it was amazing how each and every number completely failed! Not even one gem to glean from the show.
But oh how I LOVE the original!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 6:06pm

Aggis Song still seems to me like the only number to really end Act I. Anyone help me with what lyrics were censored? I mean reqally the xylephone makes them sound dirtier than I remember them being...

Yeah Goes Public is insane (youtube used to have the infomercial (!) Tommy Tune and company did to try to get peopel to see the show). I mean Braodway sequels don't have a good track record but at least in a sense Bring Back Birdie and the two Annie Sequels tried to give the audience more of what they got in the original--ok Birdie's bizarre psychedelic cult plot aside--but Little Whorehouse Goes Public was essentially an excuse to have a string of very tacky, not very good Vegas style routines--from celeb inpersonators to Strippers, strung together with a not very funny Vegas style comedian. Did anyone think this would replicate the charms of the original?

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 6:20pm

"Call Me" is one of the great Broadway numbers of all time.

"We'll enlarge it/All you do is charge it!"

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/7/09 at 6:44pm

Anyone who isn't familiar with the show run out and pick up the CD- it's a great score.