OPEN HOUSE

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Apr 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Go ahead, ask if he’s going to change anything – if the Philip Mann vision will be something completely different.

“Well, I’ve changed a few of the costumes,” he said. “We’ll have some animal prints and more leather.”

Silence, followed by a smile.

“Well, it is a whorehouse, after all,” Mann said.

He’s still smiling, but it’s not one of those junior high laugh-at-anything-risque smirks. No, his is a grown-up grin filled with appreciation.

Mann’s right, you know. He’s director of a whorehouse – the best little whorehouse in Texas at that. More specifically, he’s directing the Baton Rouge Little Theater’s production of the 1978 musical.

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas opens Friday, April 25, on the little theater’s main stage and continues playing Thursdays through Sundays until May 11. The play was written by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson with music and lyrics by Carol Hall.

Back at the Chicken Ranch, the attire usually is frilly and fluttery. Adding a little bit of animal print and leather kind of updates things.

Other than that, the musical pretty much plays out as it did for 1,584 performances in Broadway’s 46th Street Theatre, opening with two girls seeking employment at the Chicken Ranch. That’s the name of Miss Mona Stangley’s business, by the way, so titled because customers were allowed to use chickens as payment for services rendered during the Great Depression.

The storyline really isn’t anything complicated. Miss Mona is a madam who maintains a friendly relationship with local sheriff Ed Earl Dodd. Make that a very friendly relationship.

The house thrives, but trouble begins to stir in the form of a man named Melvin P. Thorpe, played by Phil Blanchard. He isn’t a dissatisfied customer, and he isn’t really a moral crusader of any type, either, though that’s how he hopes to appear.

Thorpe is more of a limelight-hugger. Maybe limelight bather would be a better description, because he loves attention. His new television program Nemesis has already scored a big hit by proving that a certain peanut candy bar contains fewer peanuts than advertised.

Now he focuses on exposing other forms of social and commercial abuse, revealing to his audience that “Texas has a whorehouse in it.” Those also are the words of the song he sings at this point, which sets the action rolling.