Best Little Whorehouse update

Okay, there's not been a whole lot of news regarding the proposed Broadway revival of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but I've got a few interesting things to share. Firstly--and this has nothing to do with Broadway--but the Theatre Company of Bryan/College Station is staging its version of the musical August 5-21. It makes me smile to think they'll be performing "The Aggie Song" in Aggieland. Too bad the Fighting Texas Aggie Marching Band doesn't ever perform it at halftime! And don't forget, the Whorehouse run continues through August 7 at the Playhouse San Antonio, where I'll be discussing the real history of the Chicken Ranch prior to matinee performances on Sundays.

All that's well and good, but what about Broadway? Glad you asked! Last month, we learned that Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Holliday (that's them being cute in the photo above), Kevin McKidd and a bunch of other Broadway regulars had table reading for uber-director Rob Ashford. That kind of star-power doesn't gather together on a whim, so we've been left wondering. Last week, Chenoweth finally broke radio silence, a little, telling the Hollywood Reporter, "I did a reading of Best Little Whorehouse with my director for Promises, Promises [Rob Ashford]. I love just singing that score that Carol Hall wrote. And Jennifer Holliday was a part of that and kicks butt. Just watching her do her thing I cried. I was just happy we got to kind of see if it has a life." She said she thought financing was in place but was non-committal about the revival's prospects beyond that.

Still, not many tea leaves there to read... until this week, when Chenoweth again dropped an indirect hint about the project: According to Lancaster Online, Chenoweth has rescheduled to January 21 a concert originally slated for October 9. "So?" you say. "Concerts are rescheduled all the time." True, but the key line in the story gives the reason for the postponement as "a new Broadway commitment." Whorehouse is the only active proto-production she is currently associated with (not counting her perpetually in development play about Tammy Faye Bakker, which is currently undergoing rewrites).

So, yay! Whorehouse returning to the Broadway stage would expand my book's market to the northeast and potentially open up New York media to me and prompt bookstores there, which wouldn't give it a second look before, to stock it. That would be utterly fantastic. So yeah, my fingers are crossed. Hopefully, we'll hear a lot more news about the Chicken Ranch and The Best Little Whorehouse sooner rather than later.

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