Review - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: It's Delightful Down At City Center

There were certainly more sophisticated musicals on Broadway when Gents opened in December of 1949 (South Pacific and Kiss Me, Kate to name a pair), but this was an era when talented writers took mindless fun seriously. Based on Anita Loos' novel chronicling the 1920s gold-digging adventures of Miss Lorelei Lee, the book (presented here in David Ives' concert adaptation) is collaboration between the source's author and the prolific Joseph Fields. After making his Broadway debut with the period piece, High Button Shoes, Jule Styne's sophomore effort was full of the brassy verve the composer would be known for, and Don Walker's colorful and energetic orchestrations sparkle under Rob Berman's baton. Leo Robin contributed abundantly clever, sometimes playfully naughty lyrics; not just for evergreens like "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend," "Bye Bye, Baby" and "I'm Just A Little Girl From Little Rock," but for novelty gems like "Keeping Cool with Coolidge," "It's Delightful Down in Chile" and the health-nut anthem, "I'm A'tingle, I'm A'glow."

"How are you going to replace such-and-such?" is the cry heard whenever a show so closely associated with a star performance is planned for a remounting, and anyone starring in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes not only gets (unfairly, of course) compared with Carol Channing's legendary spoof of kewpie doll cuteness, but with Marilyn Monroe's steamier version of the character in the film version.

But Megan Hilty, aside from having established herself as a cracker-jack singing stage actress, is also a closer to fit to the Lorelei Lee Loos had written to begin with. While certainly curvier than the classic flapper, Hilty's diminutive height and sweet, apple-pie looks serve as Lorelei's weapons of choice for catching presumptuous businessmen off-guard until they're deluded into thinking it was their idea to shower her with expensive jewelry and tokens of devotion.

The plot, in case such things matter to you, has the lovely Miss Lee on a cross-Atlantic cruise with her dear friend Dorothy, a flirty flapper who doesn't give a fig for a guy's bank account. While Dorothy is rather regulated to feeding the star straight lines for much of the show, Rachel York displays irresistible jazz-age ebullience whenever she's plunked in the middle of Skinner's dancers to belt out a number while surrounded by some of the best choreography in town; particularly when those dancers are an ensemble of stripped-down fellas playing U.S. Olympic athletes on their way to the games in Paris.

Though Lorelei is engaged to Gus Esmond Jr. (a finely mellow-voiced Clarke Thorell) , the heir to a button-manufacturing fortune, she fears that he's dumped her after finding out about her semi-sordid past in Little Rock. (Makes you wonder if she ever babysat for Little Nellie Forbush.) Using her own twisted logic to conclude she's been jilted, Lorelei sets her charms on a rising zipper manufacturer and physical fitness fanatic (a hilariously energetic Stephen R. Buntrock).

The simple, uncomplicated plot leaves lots of room for terrific supporting performances. There's the beautifully singing Aaron Lazar playing a potential mate for Dorothy who unsuccessfully tries to keep his champagne-loving mom (Deborah Rush) sober, Simon Jones and Sandra Shipley as a fun-loving codger and his stern wife and Stephen Boyer and Brennan Brown as thickly-accented French lawyers.

The knockout specialty act comes in the second half in one of those plot twists that leaves the characters watching a nightclub floor show. Phillip Attmore and Jared Grimes exude period Harlem elegance as a tap-dancing pair performing gasp-inducing footwork to "Mamie is Mimi." When they're joined by Megan Sikora, as an up-and-coming showgirl, the place goes nuts with excitement.

With so many dynamic supporting turns, a less-than-stellar star could get lost in the shuffle, but Hilty firmly dominates every moment she's on, playing Lorelei more realistically than Channing and earning big laughs with thoughtful deliveries of lines like, "Arkansas is where I was reared."

The trick comes when she has moments "in one" and lets her guard down by confiding in the audience as a hip-swiveling, curve-wiggling doll. Costume designer David C. Woolard pours her into a sparkly number for the signature tune, "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend," which she delivers with the kind of panache that turns a musical moment into an intimate expression of joy between performer and audience. What Hilty communicates, by solidly taking center stage in determination to "be a star," is that the song is not just a funny celebration of wealth, but a sincere message that, with a little guts and confidence, a kid from nowhere can reinvent herself as anything she wants. This weekend, Megan Hilty might just be reinventing herself from a dependable musical theatre professional, to a glittering Broadway star.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Clarke Thorell and Megan Hilty; Bottom: Rachel York and Company.

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