It was adapted from Jean Arnold's darkly comic novel Prettybelle: A Lively Tale of Rape and Resurrection (Dial Press, 1970).

Merrill's and Champion's intent to bring to the stage the techniques and abstractions of avant-garde films never was fulfilled.

[2] Producer Alexander H. Cohen was dissatisfied with director/choreographer Champion's approach to the material and his dictatorial treatment of the cast, and the latter ultimately banned him from rehearsals.

Leading lady Angela Lansbury pledged to boycott a move to Broadway unless everything was fixed during the out-of-town tryout in Boston.

[3] Cohen scheduled the Broadway opening at the Majestic Theatre for March 15, 1971, the last day of Tony Award eligibility, in order to get publicity for the show.

He was blatantly unfaithful to her ("You Ain't Hurtin' Your Ole Lady None"), and when he suddenly dies, she ambivalently mourns him ("To a Small Degree").

"), and attempts to make amends by writing checks to the NAACP and offering herself sexually to Mexicans and African American men ("I Never Did Imagine").

Critic Kevin Kelly said it was "pretty bad", and Variety wrote that it was "a collection of ethnic slams and four-letter words.