Fisher Fortieth
The New Season
Fisher stages "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" to open its 2001-2002 season.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News
A
crusading Jewish journalist in
Texas inspired the fast-paced
musical that opens the 40th
anniversary season of the
Fisher Theatre.
Marvin Zindler, a consumer affairs
reporter credited with closing
the infamous Chicken Ranch
brothel in 1973, got national
attention that sparked the writ-
ing of The Best Little
"Then I thought it would be over after
Broadway, but it keeps coming back over
28 years."
Zindler, who regularly challenges mer-
chants for illegal practices such as decep-
tive advertising and car dealers for crimes
such as lowering odometers, was a state
consumer fraud investigator before being
tapped for TV in 1973.
Whorehouse in Texas.
A recently updated version,
with Ann-Margret as the
Madam and Gary Sandy as the
Sheriff, runs Sept. 18-Oct. 7 in
Detroit.
"The musical is a satire, and
I can laugh at myself in satire,"
says Zindler, 80, who still does
investigative work for two con-
sumer news segments broadcast
five days a week on KTRK-TV,
an ABC affiliate.
"I thought the stage musical
was very good, but when they
did the movie, they made it too
serious. I've seen the play many
times, and I've seen it done up
so differently. They've taken
out stuff for the Ann-Margret
production and shortened it
down a little."
The Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas originally opened Off-
Broadway in 1978 and moved
to Broadway two months later.
Ann-Margret and Gary Sandy star in "Best Little
After winning two Tony Awards
Whorehouse in Texas," running Sept. 18-Oct.7,
and two Drama Desk Awards,
at Detroit's Fisher Theatre.
it played to sold-out houses for
nearly four years.
The current production fea-
The broadcaster's earlier work included
tures new music written for Ann-Margret
assignments as a disc jockey, local TV
and lavish new costumes designed by Bob
reporter and newspaper crime writer.
Mackie. Two-time Tony winner Thommie
"After I started doing commentary with
Walsh, the show's original co-choreogra-
my TV stories, a new attorney general
pher, directs and choreographs this ver-
asked me to help expose [Chicken Ranch],
sion, which is filled with music and lyrics
which had been open 129 years," says
by Carol Hall and follows a book by
Zindler. Texas law did not give the attor-
Larry L. King and Peter Masterson.
ney general the power needed to take
"If they had asked me to invest in a
strong action in this type of case.
play about me, I would have thought
"I started [looking into] the politicians
they were crazy," says Zindler, represent-
and all the different people involved,
ed as the character Melvin P. Thorpe.
9/14
2001
R48
including the sheriff. Of course, the
sheriff was allowing the place to operate.
It was handed down from one sheriff to
another. I didn't care [that there] was a
whorehouse, but if the state of Texas says
it's illegal, a sheriff cannot take that
power [to keep it open].
"I ran stories and finally went to the
governor, Dolph Briscoe, who ordered
the closing of the Chicken Ranch (which
got its name during the Depression,
when poultry was accepted as pay-
ment)."
Ann-Margret, who makes her theater
debut, has appeared in the feature films
Bye, Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, Grumpy
Old Men and Any Given Sunday. Gary
Sandy, who starred in a TV series
(WARP in Cincinnati) about radio
broadcasting, has been on Broadway and
on tour in shows such as Pirates of
Penzance, Will Rogers Follies and Chicago.
Zindler, who has traveled the country
to see the musical and appear at benefits
associated with performances, also uses
his broadcast opportunities to find med-
ical help for indigent children.
Active with the men's club at his
Reform temple, he recently took a TV
crew to the Middle East to ger Israeli
and Arab opinions about the role of reli-
gion in government.
"I get about 60,000 letters a year, and
we answer all of them," Zindler says. "I
use those letters to pick what I'm going
to do [for the broadcasts], and we go out
every day on these stories."
The Fisher Theatre
has staged dozens of
productions featuring
Jewish performers,
composers and
playwrights. They are
represented by selected
playbills pictured on
page R39, taken from
the first 10 seasons:
Left to right,
top to bottom:
Row One: Sid Caesar in
"Little Me"• Sam Levene
and Selma Diamond in
Woody Allen's "Don't
Drink the Water ",•
Sam Levene in "The
Impossible Years"; Neil
Simons "Plaza Suite';
and Marilyn Michaels
in "Funny Girl."
Row Two: Steve Lawrence
and Eydie Gorme; Molly
Picon in "How To Be a
Jewish Mother"; Joel
Grey in George M";
Jerry Herman's "Milk
and Honey"• and Irving
Berlin's 'Annie Get
Your Gun."
❑
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
runs Sept. 18-Oct. 7 at the Fisher
Theatre. Curtain times are 8 p.m.
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays
and Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Sundays.
$35-$70. (313) 872-1000.
Other shows planned to celebrate
the Fisher's 40th anniversary include
Guys & Dolls (Oct. 9-28), Saturday
Night Fever (Oct. 30-Nov. 18 at the
Masonic Temple), Fiddler on the Roof
(Nov. 16-25), Contact (Nov. 27-Dec.
16), Mamma Mia (Dec. 27-Jan. 20),
Vagina Monologues (Feb. 19-24),
South Pacific (Feb. 26-March 17),
Copenhagen (April 2-21) and Proof
(April 23-May 12).
Row Three: Zero Mostel
in "Fiddler on the Roof";
Sammy Davis Jr. in
"Golden Boy"; Buddy
Hackett in "I Had a
Ball"; Tony Martin (with
wife Cyd Charisse) in
"First Edition '65"; and
Gertrude Berg in "Dear
Me, The Sky Is Falling."
Row Four: Ted Lewis,
Sophie Tucker and George
Jessel; Arthur Miller's
"The Price"; Lauren
Bacall in "Applause";
Phil Sivers in "Do Re
Mi"; and Lerner and
Loewe's "Nly Fair Lady"