“Roosters crow, hens deliver,” five candidates sing in the musical Petticoat Rules as they launch their 1921 campaign in Jackson to become the country’s first all-woman council.

The revival of the musical, first staged 25 years ago, tells the story of that famous group of stalwarts that won two terms and helped turn a frontier town into a livable community. Under the rule of Mayor Grace Miller, who beat her incumbent husband in the election, streets wouldn’t turn into rivers during a rainstorm.

No longer would 2-foot-wide ditches flow into 1-foot-wide gutters. The Town Square wouldn’t be a dump, and Jackson would own its own “Boot Hill” up on Snow King Mountain.

In a delightful script by Broadway playwright Mary Murfitt and show-stopping tunes by composer Pam Phillips, 15 Jackson thespians resurrect Wyoming history in a boot-stomping performance. The show runs through June 14 at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson.

The all-woman’s Jackson Town Council of 1921-23. From left, Mae Deloney, Rose Crabtree, Mayor Grace Miller, Faustina Haight and Genevieve Van Vleck. (History Jackson Hole Collection 1958.0090.001P)

With gusto, the players recreate figures from Beaver Dick Leigh to John D. Rockefeller Jr. to Struthers Burt and Cal “The Cowboy” Carrington. They all circulate around the women, including socialite Cissy Patterson, Mayor Miller, her council and Town Marshall Pearl Williams.

“Petticoat Rules in Jackson Hole, a town that works is our only goal,” sings River Nelson as Mayor Miller.

“Cal the cowboy, brings me that special joy,” warbles Sarah Dropinski as Patterson.

Creators Murfitt and Phillips wrote the musical with the help of a 1999 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts after working together on Murfitt’s “Cowgirls” in San Diego. The concept won the grant among applicants from the Equality State.

In the 25th anniversary revival, “we’re especially thrilled to be playing in the Four C Pit Band,” Murfitt and Phillips said in a program statement.

The cast of Petticoat Rules receives applause at the end of a matinee on Sunday, June 1, 2025 at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile)

Director Andrew Munz first appeared on the Pink Garter stage at age 10 as one-sixth of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. He’s since launched Tumbleweed Creative Arts and in recent years revived the Pink Garter Theatre to operate as a collaborative arts center.

“I’ve seen firsthand how easily our community can forget its own story,” Munz wrote in the show’s program. At Tumbleweed, “art created on our home turf deserves just as much respect as the art we import.”

Angus M. Thuermer Jr. is the natural resources reporter for WyoFile. He is a veteran Wyoming reporter and editor with more than 35 years experience in Wyoming. Contact him at angus@wyofile.com or (307)...

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  1. Despite being born and raised here, this is a piece of history I wasn’t taught. Unsurprising, though, since our history books focus on such a narrow group of the people who shaped our world.

    Reply

    1. In Big Piney High School, the drama coach took the students to the Pink Garter each summer. Such fun, back in the day.

      Reply
    2. Reply