The legendary Ann-Margret makes her
theatre debut in a spectacular new production of the Broadway musical-comedy
smash The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The show plays at the
Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts from Tuesday through Sunday. For ticket
information, call (702) 785-5000.
Theatre veteran (and star of “WKRP in
Cincinnati”) Gary Sandy will star in the role of Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd.
Two-time Tony winner Thommie Walsh ”” the show’s original co-choreographer
”” directs and choreographs. The show features music and lyrics by Carol Hall
and a book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson.
Whorehouse is the rousing
musical tale of Miss Mona’s Chicken Ranch brothel, a “lil’ bitty pissant
country place,” and a welcome neighbor in tiny Gilbert Texas for more than a
century. When a puritanical TV reporter discovers the Chicken Ranch and demands
its closing, the state’s hypocritical politicians (and frequent Chicken Ranch
customers) are pitted against Miss Mona and her “girls.”
Ann-Margret had long been sought by the
show’s writers. Co-writer Peter Masterson said of the casting coup, “I have
wanted Ann-Margret to do Whorehouse since 1983; that’s how long I’ve
been thinking about her playing Miss Mona.”
Based on the remarkable true story of
Edna Milton and the closing of her Chicken Ranch brothel in La Grange, Texas in
1973, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was created by a quartet of
transplanted Texans ”” Hall, King, Masterson and co-director/choreographer
Tommy Tune. The show began life as a 1974 Playboy magazine article by
King, which was developed into a musical at the venerable Actors Studio, then
grew to its off-Broadway and Broadway incarnations.
The engagement in Las Vegas is part of a coast-to-coast national tour of the show already booked in 42 U.S. cities.
