About Carol Hall
Carol Hall was an American composer and songwriter best known for her witty, vibrant contributions to musical theater. She gained widespread recognition for writing the music and lyrics to the beloved musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," which premiered in the late 1970s and showcased her clever storytelling and catchy melodies. Hall’s work often blended humor with heartfelt moments, creating memorable songs that continue to delight audiences. Beyond Broadway, she also wrote for television and cabaret, carving out a unique niche with her playful yet sophisticated style. Throughout her career, Carol Hall remained a distinctive voice in American musical theater, celebrated for her sharp wit and engaging tunes.
The first Carol Hall song ever recorded was “Jenny Rebecca.” She originally wrote it as a gift for a friend who had just had a baby. The song was soon performed by cabaret legend Mabel Mercer and later recorded by a young Barbra Streisand.
Over the years, Carol’s songs were performed by Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Barbara Cook, Lena Horne, Chita Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Mark Murphy, Mabel Mercer, Olivia Newton-John, Maureen McGovern, Miriam Makeba, RuPaul, Frederica von Stade, Kermit the Frog, and Big Bird.
Her musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas won two Drama Desk Awards for lyrics and music, received a Grammy nomination for its cast album, and ran on Broadway for almost five years. It was adapted into a film starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. Dolly’s recording of Carol’s song “Hard Candy Christmas” won an ASCAP Most Performed Country Song Award. The film also earned Charles Durning an Oscar nomination for his performance of “The Sidestep” as the Governor of Texas. A national tour of the musical, starring Ann-Margret, ran for more than a year and a half.
In 2015, Cyndi Lauper recorded “Hard Candy Christmas” as a duet with Alison Krauss on her album Detour. In 2016, Reba McEntire included the song on her album My Kind of Christmas, released through Cracker Barrel. The song has been listed among The Best Christmas Songs Ever by Hal Leonard Corporation.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas continues to be one of the most frequently performed stock and amateur musicals around the world.
Carol also had a long career writing for children. For more than ten years she contributed songs to Sesame Street. She was one of the principal writers for Marlo Thomas’s Free to Be… You and Me, which won an Emmy Award and went gold as an album. She later contributed to Free to Be… a Family and Thanks & Giving: All Year Long. She also wrote the music and lyrics for Max & Ruby (TheatreWorks, NYC), which toured nationally for four years.
She usually wrote both music and lyrics but also collaborated with other writers. Late in her career she was the lyricist for A Christmas Memory, based on Truman Capote’s short story, with a libretto by Duane Poole and music by Larry Grossman. The show premiered in 2010 at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California, where it received rave reviews and broke attendance records. It was later staged at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2011 and premiered in New York at the Irish Repertory Theatre in December 2014.
Her other stage work included Good Sports (Goodspeed Theatre), Paper Moon (Paper Mill Playhouse), Are We There Yet? (Williamstown Theatre Festival), To Whom It May Concern (Off-Broadway), and songs for A… My Name Is Alice and A… My Name Is Still Alice. Her collection of non-musical one-act plays, The Days Are As Grass, was performed at the Woodstock Fringe Festival, Bay Street Theater, the Actors Studio Playwrights Unit in New York City, and Theatre of the Spirit in Newcastle, Maine. It is available for production through Samuel French.
Carol was a Lifetime Member of the Board of the Dramatists Guild. She taught at the International Cabaret Conference at Yale University and served as a moderator in the Playwrights/Directors Workshop of the Actors Studio in New York City.
Hall died on October 11, 2018, at the age of 82. She was married to media producer Leonard Majzlin and was the mother of Susannah Blinkoff, a songwriter, screenwriter, and actor, and Daniel Blinkoff, an actor. Both live in Los Angeles.
