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The star doesn't shine so brightly in this one.

Saturday May 05, 2001.     By Joseph Bowen

Theater Feed

Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St.
Through May 6

Many musicals of the 1970s have disappeared off the map, never to be seen again. A few, such as Pippin, Godspell, and A Chorus Line endure well beyond their original Broadway runs. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, first on Broadway in 1978, should be in that category, but the current revival at the Oriental Theatre misses the mark for one reason: the star in this star-vehicle.

This revival is two shows. Way downstage, there's Ann-Margaret (in her stage debut), facing directly out to the audience at every opportunity, mangling her solo songs (and not just because of her throat infection, which we were informed about at intermission) by turning them into Las Vegas-style numbers, instead of the tuneful country songs they used to be. There's not a genuine moment in her performance. Upstage, behind her, is a very talented cast trying very hard to make the show work the way it used to. If the understudy had gone on instead of Ms. Margaret, we might have seen a show worthy of the material.

This show suffers from the same maladies many commercial productions face nowadays: lack of respect for the material and for the audience. Audiences would much rather see a show with quality, well-trained performers than see a movie star who has never trod the boards before. Commercial producers clearly have no respect for the people who buy the tickets.

Based on the true story of the 1973 closing of the Chicken Ranch brothel run by Edna Milton, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas tells the story of Miss Mona (Ann-Margaret), whose Chicken Ranch is under fire by right-wing groups, led by television crusader Melvin P. Thorpe (Rob Donahoe) and an anything-to-get-re-elected Governor (Ed Dixon). Ed Earl Dodd (Gary Sandy), the county sheriff who has romantic attachments to Miss Mona, tries valiantly to make the combatants leave well enough alone. Meanwhile, Miss Mona's ladies entertain customers, such as a Senator and the champion Texas A&M "Aggie" football team.

Directed and Choreographed by Thommie Walsh, who worked with Tommy Tune on the original Broadway production, the show tries to retain some of it's former glory without Ms. Margaret getting in the way. The famous "Aggie Song" - the football players singing and dancing their way to the Chicken Ranch, and the ever-popular "Hard Candy Christmas," sung by the ladies as they pack their belongings and prepare to leave for parts unknown are clues as to why the musical was so successful the first time around.

There are some performances that are delightfully larger-than-life - Gary Sandy gives some farcical dimension to Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, and his "Good Old Girl" is very well sung; Roxie Lucas is whimsical as Doatsy Mae, the waitress who never broke out of her shell; Ed Dixon is a clueless Texas governor (what does that remind you of?); and Rob Donohoe gives a comically nasty edge to Melvin P. Thorpe. And don't forget the all singing, all dancing chorus - they are what really makes the show work when it does.

All in all, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a good production behind the scrim that is Ann-Margaret. It would have been a much better show with a stage veteran playing the central character.