Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

A new concert staging of the 1949 Broadway musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the London Palladium, with an orchestra of 30 musicians and a cast led by Megan Hilty and Rachel Tucker.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Leo Robin and a book by Anita Loos and Joseph Fields. The Broadway original opened in 1949 with Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee. The story follows Lorelei and her friend Dorothy Shaw aboard an ocean liner heading for Paris, and its numbers include "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "A Little Girl from Little Rock". The 1953 film adaptation cast Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei, with Jane Russell as Dorothy.

This London production is a concert staging with an orchestra of 30 musicians, led by Olivier Award winner Alan Williams. Warren Carlyle, winner of the Tony Award for Best Choreography for After Midnight, directs and choreographs the show after 17 Broadway productions. Megan Hilty, a Tony Award nominee, plays Lorelei Lee, a role she performed in New York City Center's Encores! production, while Rachel Tucker, an Olivier Award nominee, plays Dorothy Shaw. Rebecca Brower designs the sets and costumes, Zoe Spurr the lighting, Joanna Goodwin is associate choreographer and Mark Hedges associate director. The ensemble was cast by Pearsons Casting and the production is managed by QUBE Theatricals.

The London Palladium, on Argyll Street, mainly hosts concerts and also stages theatre productions. The evening suits anyone interested in the Broadway musical and its well-known film version.