I am back from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, still smiling broadly from the outrageousness of it all and reveling in the fantastic score. This is one recording I am really looking forward to. There's so much cut from the OBC, especially in the Hugh Martin vocal and Trude Rittman dance arrangements, and they work beautifully with Don Walker's orchestrations. The cast is very good; I really like Rachel York, Simon Jones, Debrah Rush, and a very funny nerdish Aaron Lazar, who's a really handsome man. I'm still out on Megan Hilty, who I thought was perfect casting on paper but didn't seem outrageous enough to me in performance. She veers toward the Monroe version of Lorelei rather than Channing, but the Monroe film isn't nearly as funny as this musical's libretto, and the libretto isn't as screamingly funny or as dark as the original, absolutely brilliant novel.
The closest the musical gets to the novel is in the "Diamonds are A Girl's Best Friend" number in which she justifies herself. The brilliance of the humor in the novel, which is Lorelei's diary, comes from her lousy spelling, pretensions, off the cuff idiocy and playing the helpless baby doll combined with her survival instincts as she reaches decisions, such as leaving a man who truly loves her for another who's wealthy but repellent, and justifies her behavior. The Lorelei of the musical is not the gold digging whorish idiot of the book; she's a dizzy, rather dumb, but likeable flapper who's surrounded by gentlemen wanting to protect her, set her up in a nice apartment and hope she's faithful. Hilty has a big bosom and a sense of humor, but the clownish side of the role isn't there for me. I feel the parody or caricature of the pretty little helpless and naive blonde needing male protection is what's missing along with a full realization of Lorelei's general stupidity. In the first number, "Bye Bye Baby," Lorelei sings to Gus, her sugar daddy, "I'll be with my diary and that book by Mr Gideon." She's dumb and doesn't know it's the Bible, but Hilty sings it was an "Amen" pose that says she does know, and I think that's wrong. I did like her and Simon's "It's Delightful Down In Chile" very much, and she delivers a good "Diamonfds Are A Girl's Best Friend." I think she could have poured on the Arkansas accent a bit more/
Randy Skinner's choreography is wonderful, from the great "I Love What I'm Doing When I'm Doing It For Love" number for the barechested Olympic team and Dorothy to the wonderful ballet isetting of "Sunshine." And then, in Act Two, Randy brings down the house with "Mamie Is Mimi" for two black tap dancers and Gloria, the always precticing chorus girl. It's a wonderful show. And if you've never read the novel, you should. It's funny. Very funny.
