RIDE 'EM, COWBOY ANN-MARGRET LEADS A RAUCOUS 'BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

STAR-DRIVEN vehicles often lean too heavily on their box-office draw - especially on the road. But where the revival of ``The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' is concerned, somebody had the good sense to surround the leading lady with talent.

With pianist/conductor Anne Shuttlesworth leading the countrified players, composer Carol Hall's music cooks. Boot stomping and torso shimmying is expertly executed by an ensemble whose members - and we're talking both sexes here - don't all possess bodies by Fosse. ``The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' offers more than a little flesh and certainly more raunch than the well-heeled patrons of the Orange County Performing Arts Center are generally accustomed to. Oh, and Gary Sandy (of ``WKRP in Cincinnati'' fame), sports the most impenetrable accent this side of the Pecos.

But I'll just bet y'all want to hear about Ann-Margret.

Well, she's every bit a star, even in a role that isn't taxing. Believe it or not, the ``Whorehouse,'' tour - which parks for a week in Costa Mesa in its only Southern California stop - is her stage debut. And she makes it look easy.

Playing Miss Mona Stanley, the proprietress of a high-class bordello known as the Chicken Ranch, Ann-Margret puts herself on display as much as she does her character. And why not? The voice is a honeyed Mae West purr, the vocals a smoky alto. Personal costumer Bob Mackie often dresses her in sequins - blacks, reds and pinks to set off that perfectly fluffed orange hair and those generous hips. Ann-Margret's attitude says, ``under control.''

For Ann-Margret fans, the best part of ``Whorehouse'' will be its curtain call, when director Thommie Walsh finally lets her cut loose a bit with the ensemble. Everything leading up to the finale - at least where Miss Mona is concerned - is bluesy and contemplative. Everyone else is having all the ribald fun.

Consider the Governor, played to a shaking and wobbling hilt by Ed Dixon or the Swaggart-like antics of watchdog Melvin P. Thorpe (Rob Donohoe in western Liberace regalia). Thorpe is crusading to shut down Miss Mona's Chicken Ranch - a kind of local institution. Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd (Sandy), Mona's main squeeze, wants to see all the nonsense blow over. But it doesn't.

You can also see why the folks who made the film version of ``Whorehouse'' (starring a then-hot Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton) elected to streamline the story. When it's not breaking out a whooping dance number, Larry King and Peter Masterson's book is a bit patchy. Characters are introduced and then dropped, while others, like Roxie Lucas' seen- it-all waitress, simply stop the action. Songs, whatever their musical merit, don't always advance the plot. And in what should be a musical comedy, Miss Mona spends more than a little time ruminating about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Still, Walsh's company handles the melancholy and the friskiness with equal dexterity. ``Whorehouse'' and its leading lady are gracious and highly entertaining hosts.

THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS Three stars

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 8 p.m. today and Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through Sunday.

Tickets: $27.50 to $64.50. Call [phone].

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Photo:

Ann-Margret, front left, Gary Sandy and the cast of ``The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' whoop it up at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.