How would a …WHOREHOUSE revival fare today? — Page 2

I have to admit that I did not much like this when I saw it 40 years ago. I cannot imagine it succeeding today. First of all, Ann-Margaret may have toured it, but the role of Mona is pretty small; I can;t see why a real star with alternative work options would want to tie herself up to appear in this. Secondly, the real sar of the show was Tommy Tune's staging; unless they simply copy it, they are never going to improve upon it. 40 Years ago, there were people who thought it was raunchy and that that helped the box-office. Today it is quaint.

To the person who referred to Mame and Funny Girl; Funny Girl was always a flawed show that could succeed with a great star turn because there were enough high-spots to offset the low ones, e.g., book scenes, Rat-tat-tat-tat,listening to Nicky Arnstein sturm-un-drung, etc.

I continue to believe that Mame could succeed with a great star performance. It is a fun, old-fashioned musical comedy with several great roles, opportunities for show-stopping numbers, lots of brass in the orchestra, a number of well-loved songs, Bsst Little Whorehouse has the title.

It also knocked "E.T." out of the top spot the weekend it opened.

uncageg said: "It also knocked "E.T." out of the top spot the weekend it opened."

Yes, it did.

At the time of its release, it had the biggest opening box office weekend for a musical. So wonderful that AMC Theatres has released it in honor of Dolly's passing. I've seen it 3 times so far in the last few days. Each screening was completely full, and everyone applauded when Dolly's name appeared on the screen, and when we see her for the first time. Love this movie! Dolly is just so wonderful in it.

Film critic Pauline Kael said this of Dolly in the film:

Dimples, wigs, bazooms, and all, Dolly Parton is phenomenally likable in 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.' As the woman who runs the venerable institution—it’s situated in a rural area off the Austin-to-Houston highway— she’s a madam doll. Her exterior is completely stylized, yet her manner is natural and easy, and she gives the impression of having lived a bit—of having earned her permissive, tolerant manner. This is only Dolly Parton’s second picture, and she has become assured; her whole personality is melodious."

Updated On: 9/1/26 at 05:11 PM

kdogg36 said: "The one thing that struck me about the movie when I saw it recently is how little agency the sex workers are given in the story. All the other main characters talk about them constantly and meet to decide their fate, andthey're basically portrayed as pawns in other people's games. (Compare this to Pretty Woman,which didn't come out that much later and which, whatever else you might think about it, shows us a sex worker who's very much in control of her own life.)

I'm not saying this prevents me from appreciating the movie for what it is, and maybe audiences in general won't care. That being said, I think this could be fixed with some changes to the book without doing violence to the existing material."

During post-production, the film was heavily edited down, including a subplot of Sky, a new girl at the Chicken Ranch that Mona takes under her wing. Their song ended up on the cutting room floor. The only line that remained of her role was her one line during "Hard Candy Christmas." Everything else was cut. Also cut was half of the Aggie Song, Burt's solo, and the original opening song "Chicken Ranch" over the opening titles. The majority of Lois Nettleton's role as Dulcie Mae ended up being eliminated from the final cut, as well.

Here is the complete and restored "Aggie Song" from David Engel, who was an Aggie in the film.

The Aggie Song (Reconstructed) | Videos & Movies on Vimeo

MemorableUserName said: "That's not an issue in the musical. It's a consequence of the movie's focus on Burt and Dolly, and the invention of the Ed Earl-Mona relationship, which doesn't exist in the musical. Anything related to the girls other than Hard Candy Christmas was basically erased. In the musical, at least two of the Chicken Ranch girls have characters and actual names (in the movie none of them do; they're all credited as the Chicken Ranch Girls), and they have several numbers that make them more like people and not entirely like window dressing."

When film rights are bought and sold, anything can happen, and probably will. Some movie musicals are very faithful to the original piece. "My Fair Lady" is the perfect example of that.

Since we seem to have some experts around here, anyone able to identify some of the Aggies from the number? Jeff Calhoun is pretty recognizable, IMO. And Engel provided a handy version of the restored cut pointing out himself in it. But I've wondered who the blond playing the manager character/principal (?) vocalist is, among others and haven't been able to figure it out. Most of them don't have photos on IMBD (I'm assuming this is the "Better than a football game?" guy).

MemorableUserName said: "That's not an issue in the musical. It's a consequence of the movie's focus on Burt and Dolly, and the invention of the Ed Earl-Mona relationship, which doesn't exist in the musical. Anything related to the girls other than Hard Candy Christmas was basically erased. In the musical, at least two of the Chicken Ranch girls have characters and actual names (in the movie none of them do; they're all credited as the Chicken Ranch Girls), and they have several numbers that make them more like people and not entirely like window dressing."

Thanks to you and nealb1 (ETA: and Kad) for raising this point. Perhaps the stage version (which I haven't seen) already dealt adequately with my little complaint.

Updated On: 9/1/26 at 05:47 PM

So last week my partner and I watched the film version (and “9 to 5”, and the All Stars Drag Race with the Dolly runway… for reasons), and I thought the exact same thing as this thread.


My personal pitch for a production: get a tiny off-Broadway house, dress it up like a honky tonk/ country bar. Stage the show environmentally with a country band playing in the corner, and the characters grabbing mics for songs. Have characters start line dances with the audience for certain numbers, if we’re feeling expensive build a second floor of walkways above the audience that characters can use for the farcical chase sequence. Cast a Bowen Yang or Cole Escola as the preacher (and play it as campy as possible).


Now my big swing would be to keep the show as written, but cast Mona & the girls as Drag Queens. You can choose to lean into the legalized prostitution of it all or not (lord knows the idea of making the sex workers gays and trans femmes isn’t riddled with land mines of stereotypes & problematic narratives), but the idea of the Whorehouse being a gay club just outside of town where boys can escape to and there’s “nothing dirty’s going on” feels a little too perfect given how the story progresses.


I know, not everything can be “Cats The Jellicle Ball”, but I’d much rather this than another concert staging.

The changes the movie makes turn the story into a fairly generic love story with a title it kinda wastes. I watched it for the first time when I got older, and it was like watching a DCOM: inoffensive, but certainly not any good. People argue that the stage version doesn't have the same issues. That's true, but from a producer's standpoint, would that matter? Outside of the kind of people who haunt this board, the public memory of Whorehouse is Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, maybe "Hard Candy Christmas," and "I Will Always Love You"—a song that doesn't exist in the original, can't be added without including the love story, will likely be in the soon-to-smash Dolly musical, and is separately tied up in people's cultural imagination through a different icon in a bad movie.



I imagine any revival will end up being some sort of hacked-together melding of the two by a good-to-great comedy writer with "updated" jokes and a pass-over from a respected script doctor (or three) to firm up the spine, which is a terrifying thought that suggests we should perhaps leave well enough alone. If we lived in a world where this could be good, I'd say this would be a great role for Audra to finally return to musical comedy, as I've been praying for years! We don't live in that world.

I actually only caught the film on streaming once just two years ago. Aside from hearing a song or two in passing, I have no familiarity with the original stage musical. As for my thoughts, Dolly Parton feels like the Energizer Bunny, mainly how she’s full of nonstop energy. Burt Reynolds, who’s not bad in his duet with Dolly, gives a really good performance overall. Charles Durning doesn’t have a lot to do, but he does have a memorable musical number. The dance sequences are exciting. The editing is well paced.

However, the story isn’t really engaging. I didn’t find most of the humor funny. The latter is likely a result of the source material not translating well from stage to screen. Not to mention that for a musical like this, it needed a more visual surrealism. A problem some people (myself included) personally had with Spielberg’s West Side Story was that the musical numbers didn’t come off well in a more realistic setting. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas probably would’ve benefited from having more work done on a backlot and soundstages as opposed to real locations.

That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing a stage production because I'd be curious to see how the material plays differently.

Rentaholic2 said: "Serious question - what is the "one truly great song" you are referring to? Hard Candy Christmas?"

That's my favorite number in the show.