It's a little T & A for my musical Year. Well, a lot of T if you're looking at Dolly Parton. And just to keep everyone engaged, there's some nice A in the football team locker room scene in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
This show seems tailor-made for the personas of Ms. Parton and Burt Reynolds, although I think several songs written by Parton were added to the film version. And Mr. Reynolds, while not embarrassing himself musically in his one number, wisely does not perform the other songs for the Sheriff from the stage version. I had know that Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" (as made famous by Whitney Houston), but didn't know it was in this film.
The music for chorus is really the draw for this show; from the back-up singers for Melvin Thorpe (Dom DeLuise) to the girls of the Chicken Ranch and the boys of the Aggie's football team, the group numbers are fun, funny and upbeat. The couple of solo or duet numbers don't really reach off the screen.
Sorry, sis, by I need to tell one personal story about this show. When my sister and I were in our twenties, my family went to visit her and see her in a community theater production of this show. I don't remember much about the production, except that it was well-done, and that I have rarely been more embarrassed than I was sitting between my mother and grandmother watching the football locker room scene. You're familiar with the phrase "Will it play in Peoria?" well this was "Is he gay in Peoria?"
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
Music and Lyrics by Carol Hall
Book by Larry L. King
Film released in 1982 based on the 1978 stage musical
Cast: Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise
2 comments:
GRANDMA WAS THERE??? I think I've repressed that memory. How embarrassing. My one saving grace is that I couldn't dance well enough to play a "lady of the night," so was stuck in a choir robe spouting off lyrics like "Lord have mercy on their souls."
Yes, I'm certain Grandma was there. I remember riding down to Peoria with her and Mom and Dad. At one point the gas gauge got low enough for the bell to ring, and we all joked that it would be the only time Mom let that happen.
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