Encores! GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES Cast Album in the Works!

Masterworks Broadway will release the Encores! cast recording of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The album will be recorded in New York City this week, and will feature "A Little Girl From Little Rock," "Bye Bye Baby," and of course, the classic made famous by Marilyn Monroe, "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend." There is no word yet on a release date.

Starring as Lorelei Lee is Sony recording artist and star of NBC's hit series Smash – Megan Hilty. The cast also includes Rachel York as Dorothy, Clarke Thorell as Gus, Aaron Lazar as Henry plus Simon Jones, Stephen R. Buntrock, Phillip Attmore and Jared Grimes. Hilty is in the process of recording her first solo album for Sony Masterworks/Columbia Records which will come out in early 2013.

The first stage version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes debuted on Broadway in 1926 adapted from the novel by Anita Loos. The musical version, featuring music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin and book by Loos and Joseph Fields, debuted at the Ziegfeld Theatre on December 8, 1949, making a star of Carol Channing and eventually ran for 740 performances. It was made into a hit 1953 film by director Howard Hawks and starred Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. The recent critically acclaimed Encores! production ran May 9 to May 13, 2012 at New York's City Center.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus