Prettybelle.
Prettybelle is a musical based on the comic novel by Jean Arnold.
Cast[]
- Angela Lansbury - Prettybelle Sweet
- Charlotte Rae - Mother Sweet
- Joe Morton - Willy Thomas
- Michael Jason - Folksinger
- Mark Dawson - Leroy Sweet
- Peter Lombard - Mason Miller
- Bert Michaels - Jesus
- Robert Karl - Huey Lipscomb
- Jan Leighton - Bubba Rawlings
- Igors Gavon - Cully Hart
Plot[]
A spectral Folksinger sings the ballad of one Prettybelle Sweet... In 1968: Prettybelle is writing her memoirs from an insane asylum. She was the ladylike wife of Leroy Sweet, a bigoted sheriff in the Jim Crow South. He was blatantly unfaithful to her, and when he suddenly dies, she ambivalently mourns him.
Leroy's ghost returns, and boasts of his hate crimes against African Americans. She is horrified, and attempts to make amends by writing checks to the NAACP and offering herself sexually to Mexicans and African American men. Prettybelle becomes involved with Mason Miller, a liberal lawyer. As a result, the KKK attacks Prettybelle's house. However, the local hippies help her clean her house up. But, then, at the climax, Mason shockingly betrays Prettybelle and she goes into hiding at the state asylum.
Musical numbers[]
- Act I
- "Picayumi Gazette" - Prettybelle, Baines, Sybil Mae
- "Manic Depressives" - Prettybelle
- "Policeman's Hymn" - Police Band
- "Prettybelle" - Folksinger
- "You Ain't Hurtin' Your Ole Lady None" - Leroy, Ray, Cully, Bubba, Huey
- "To a Small Degree" - Prettybelle
- "Back from the Great Beyond" - Leroy
- "How Could I Know What Was Goin' On?" - Prettybelle
- "I Never Did Imagine" - Prettybelle, Jesus
- "New Orleans Poon" - Mother Sweet
- "In the Japanese Gardens" - Prettybelle
- "An Individual Thing" - Mason
- "I Met a Man" - Prettybelle
- "Prettybelle" (Reprise) - Folksinger
- Act II
- "The No-Tell Motel" - Prettybelle, Company
- "I'm in a Tree" - Prettybelle
- "When I'm Drunk I'm Beautiful" - Prettybelle
- "Give Me a Share in America" - Willy
- "Prettybelle" (Finale) - Prettybelle, Folksinger