Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (musical)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
1949 Broadway Playbill
Music	Jule Styne
Lyrics	Leo Robin
Book	Joseph Fields Anita Loos
Basis	Book by Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Productions	1949 Broadway 1962 West End 1995 Broadway revival

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a musical with a book by Joseph Fields and Anita Loos, lyrics by Leo Robin, and music by Jule Styne, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Loos. The story involves an American woman's voyage to Paris to perform in a nightclub.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1949 (running for 740 performances and introducing Carol Channing), a London production was mounted in 1962, and there was a Broadway revival in 1995. An adaptation called Lorelei (also starring Carol Channing) played on Broadway in 1974. It was made into a film of the same name in 1953, starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. The popular songs "Bye Bye Baby" and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" were introduced in this musical.

In the 1920s, Lorelei Lee, a blonde from Little Rock, Arkansas, and her friend Dorothy Shaw board the ocean liner Ile de France, to embark for France ("It's High Time"). Lorelei and her boyfriend (who is her "sugar daddy"), Gus Esmond, are parting for a while ("Bye, Bye Baby"); Gus is going to Little Rock, and Dorothy is Lorelei's chaperone. On the ship, Lorelei has many admirers, including the rich Philadelphian Henry Spofford III, and an Englishman, Sir Francis (Piggy) Beekman. Lorelei is worried that Gus will find out about an old secret of hers and break off their engagement ("I’m Just A Little Girl From Little Rock"), and she is afraid to open a wire that she receives from him. Meanwhile, Dorothy flirts with a group of olympic sportsmen ("I Love What I’m Doing (When I’m Doing It For Love)"). Lorelei disapproves of this as the olympians are poor; she is sure that Gus has broken up with her and tells Dorothy that they need to find some rich men. Lorelei chooses the zipper king, Josephus Gage. For Dorothy she chooses Henry Spofford. Lady Beekman is trying to sell her tiara to an American. Lorelei wishes to buy it, but does not have the money, so she decides to persuade Sir Francis to lend her the money ("Its Delightful Down In Chile").