The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 with a book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson

Peter Masterson

Peter Masterson is an American actor, director, producer and writer.Masterson often worked with his cousin, writer Horton Foote. Acting from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s,including 1975's The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart, since then he has concentrated mostly on directing and producing...

 and music and lyrics by Carol Hall

Carol Hall

Carol Hall is an American composer and lyricist, born in Abilene, Texas.Hall is best known for composing the music and lyrics for the Broadway stage musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas...

.

Ostensibly a sequel to the creative team's 1978 hit The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is a musical with a book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson and music and lyrics by Carol Hall...

, it is more a series of burlesque

Burlesque

Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...

-style sketches and musical interludes than a traditional book musical. Hoping to recover $26 million in back taxes owed them by Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 whorehouse Stallion Fields, the IRS

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

 lures former brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 madam Mona Stangley out of retirement to run the operation. Complications arise when billionaire

Billionaire

A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...

 Sam Dallas arranges the sale of shares in the enterprise on the stock exchange

Stock exchange

A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...

 and right-wing politician

Right-wing politics

In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...

 Senator A. Harry Hardast objects to his plan.

The Vegas locale allows for an ongoing parade of barely-dressed showgirls in glitzy Bob Mackie

Bob Mackie

Robert Gordon Mackie is an American fashion designer, best known for his costuming for entertainment icons such as Judy Garland, Cher, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Tina Turner, and Mitzi Gaynor...

 costumes, Sonny and Cher, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Liberace

Liberace

Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...

, and Siegfried and Roy impersonators, and a two-bit stand-up comic acting as emcee against a background of flashing neon lights and accompanied by the sound of ever-jangling slot machines.

After 28 previews, the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production, directed by Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune

Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...

 and Peter Masterson and choreographed by Tune and Jeff Calhoun

Jeff Calhoun (choreographer)

Jeff Calhoun is an American director, choreographer, producer and dancer.As a student at Richland High School, now Pine-Richland High School , Calhoun was interested in both athletics and performance, playing football and studying tap dance. He danced in the ensemble at The Kenley Players in Ohio...

, opened on May 10, 1994 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 205 West 46th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, it was built by producer Charles Dillingham and opened as the Globe Theatre, in honor of London's Shakespearean playhouse, on...

, where it ran for 16 performances. The cast included Dee Hoty as Mona, Scott Holmes

Scott Holmes

Scott Holmes is an actor, best known for the role of District Attorney Tom Hughes in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role he played from 1987 through ATWT's 2010 cancellation...

 as Sam, Ronn Carroll as the Senator, and Jim David

Jim David

Jim David is an American stand-up comedian, actor and writer. He is originally from Asheville, North Carolina, and lives in New York City. He performs stand-up comedy at comedy clubs and other venues worldwide...

 as the emcee.

An original cast recording was released by Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract...

.

Musical numbers

Act I

• Let the Devil Take Us
• Nothin' Like a Picture Show
• I'm Leavin' Texas
• It's Been a While
• Brand New Start

Act II

• Down and Dirty
• Call Me
• Change In Me
• Here for the Hearing
• Piece of the Pie
• Change In Me (Reprise)
• If We Open Our Eyes

Nominations

• Tony Award
  Tony Award
  The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
  
   for Best Actress in a Musical (Hoty)
• Drama Desk Award
  Drama Desk Award
  The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
  
  for Outstanding Orchestrations
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design

External links

• Internet Broadway Database listing