Oh yeah! Angela Lansbury versus Dolly Parton! That’s the kind of battle of the champions we need.
“Mame”! A great play, turned into a great movie, turned into a great musical. Just, all good. And every version has this lovely moment when the family has fallen on hard times and is very sad, and Auntie Mame announces that they are going to have Christmas a few days early because they need “a little Christmas”.
And then there’s “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”. Which is a terrible TERRIBLE title. But a pretty good musical, about a warm and safe and long running brothel. Which is sadly closed down thanks to a big media and political storm. When it is shut down, the workers start singing this sort of sad but enduring and accepting song. Dolly was in the film version, and this song is PERFECT for her.
All right, which is better?????
This is really REALLY hard! It’s super close, but I think I am going for Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher herself) over Dolly.