Her wider success meant that ‘I’m not just the girl who does the Texas madam in a musical; I’m someone who’s considered an actress’
Carlin Glynn, who has died 83, won a Tony Award in 1979 for her portrayal of a brothel madam in the Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; two years later she brought the show’s boot-stomping dance routines to the West End for a six-month run at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in the process receiving a Society of West End Theatre award.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, not as outrageous as the title suggests, was a takedown of hypocrisy, featuring a local sheriff who had always turned a blind eye to the Chicken Ranch (some customers paid in chickens) but who has to take action when a do-gooding TV crew starts investigating.
The show’s suggestive posters were banned on the London Underground, as were ads on New York buses that read: “Have fun at the whorehouse.” Yet the Chicken Ranch was marginally less corrupting than the average monastery, with dope, whips, kissing and rude words all banished.
The idea came about in 1974 when Carlin Glynn’s husband, Peter Masterson, happened upon a dog-eared copy of Playboy containing an article by Larry L King about the closure of the real-life Chicken Ranch in Texas after 150 years. Sensing the potential to turn the story into a show, he contacted King and they began working together.