The Whorehouse Papers

by Larry L. King

It started with two phone calls sandwiched around his article in Playboy about the "Chicken Ranch", a notorious bordello in the little Texas town of LaGrange. Larry L. King up to his red neck in debt, suddenly was embarked upon a theatrical adventure that had all the makings of a fiasco. He began keeping a journal of his experiences with every expectation of grand, or not so grand, failure—and with a sharp eye for the villains of the piece.

Out of that journal Mr. King has fashioned The Whorehouse Papers, a barbed and unbuttoned account of the making of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, set down as no other backstage memoir could be, with all the cayenne and bias of a man by turns mystified, infuriated, and enraptured by life in the theatre. The constant wrangling of creative egos, the tribulations of casting, the disasters of rehearsals, the manic cold sweats of opening night, the sweet shock of success—all of this Mr. King renders in his no-holds-barred story of a show—one of the longest-running in Broadway history—that by his own reckoning has made him "about two-thirds rich."

Genres: Nonfiction

283 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 1982

About the author

Larry L. King (January 1, 1929 –December 20, 2012) was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which became a long-running production on Broadway and was later turned into a feature film starring Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning and Dolly Parton.

Reviews

[Christina]

I'm about half way through and loving it. It's a great story about how 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' (yes, a musical) went through the process from real-life story to Broadway hit. It's great to see an insider's view of theatre...from someone who really isn't an 'insider'. King was origionally a writer/journalist and wrote the original Playboy article on the true story. He was then approached by friends to write the libretto for the show - and craziness ensued. It is especially interesting to read having been in a production of the show.

[Wendell Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the backstage stories! Can't wait to get started on the Upstagers Theatre Company production scheduled to be presented April 15-16 at the Rome City Auditorium. I'll be playing Melvin P. Thorpe and rehearsals start 1/25/16! Yay!