At the Sierra Madre Playhouse, the little girl who played Nellie Oleson on Little House On The Prairie has grown into a sixty-something comedienne with endless tales.
By John Lavitt
Sierra Madre, CA (The Hollywood Times) 01/26/2024
As Nellie Oleson on Little House On The Prairie (1974-1983), Alison Arngrim played one of the most dislikable characters in television history. As the rich, entitled bitch on the prairie with blond pigtails and loads of entitlement, she was a child that you simply loved to dislike. You did not quite hate Nellie Oleson because she was annoyingly cute in her deviousness, but you definitely did not like her. Kids would cheer whenever she got her comeuppance from the Ingalls sisters because the nasty little girl got what she deserved.
However, as Allison Arngrim describes in “Confessions Of A Prairie B*tch,” it was not easy taking on this role as a little girl because people failed to separate the actor from the character. Indeed, after the show premiered, she describes going to school and expecting to be treated like a star. Instead, the kids treated her like only her character deserved, with one girl loudly proclaiming atop the school, “I hate you now even more.”
In her energetic and detailed one-person show, Alison Arngrim unveils the details of her life before, during, and after the show. She tells stories about her fellow cast members and answers questions from the audience. Although she pokes fun at just about everyone, she has only a lasting reverence for the professionalism and charisma of Michael Landon. As the show’s lead and Executive Producer, he demanded the best from the child actors. As he told them passionately, we are doing this for the audience because, without them tuning in, we do not exist. Thus, his reverence for fans superseded everything except his hair.
Beyond the show, at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, the woman returns to her childhood and reveals fascinating information about her parents. As Liberace’s manager, her father was flamboyant yet exacting. Most likely, living with his family as a bit of a beard, he was a closeted man who loved his daughter and cherished her success. Even more intriguing, Alison’s mom was an incredibly successful voice actor. She voiced many iconic characters: Davey from Davey and Goliath, Gumby, Caspar the Friendly Ghost, and Sweet Polly Purebred in Underdog. Growing up with such creatively eccentric yet successful parents made for quite a childhood.
When asked if she revealed everything in her book during the show, Alison Arngrim laughs and says there were no stories left to tell beyond the book’s contents. However, she tends to pull back in the show and not reveal the juicy stuff. In the second half, it starts to go on and on about her success, both as an actor and a person, and it loses some steam. One would wish she focused more on stories and less on herself. Still, seeing a child star on stage as a grown woman, backed by props and videos, does make for an engaging night. Leaving the theatre, I could not help but wonder what else there was behind the curtain. Indeed, “Confessions Of A Prairie B*tch” needed a few more confessions and a little less success.
