Dirty Blonde (play)

Dirty Blonde is a play by Claudia Shear. The play ran Off-Broadway and on Broadway in 2000. It involves two fans of Mae West who discover their shared passion for her, and for each other.

Conceived by Shear and James Lapine and featuring songs from I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong, it explores the phenomenon of the legendary Mae West, one of America's most enduring and controversial pop culture icons. The play, which draws its title from the West film quip "I made myself platinum, but I was born a dirty blonde", tells the story of Jo, an office temp and aspiring actress, and Charlie, who works in the New York Public Library's film archives, both lonely and obsessive West fans who meet at her grave and form a unique relationship as they swap stories about the career highlights and eventual decline into parody of the woman they worship.

The play premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop on January 10, 2000, running to February 13, 2000.

The play then opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on May 1, 2000 after previews from April 14 and closed on March 4, 2001 after 352 performances. The play was directed by James Lapine, with Shear as Jo/West and Kevin Chamberlin and Bob Stillman.

Kathy Najimy replaced Shear on January 9, 2001. Tom Riis Farrell replaced Chamberlin on July 6, 2000. Najimy reprised her role at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, in July to August 2003, along with original actors Chamberlin and Stillman.

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