Lorelei

Lorelei, which opened on Broadway on January 27, 1974, for a 320-performance run, was, in essence, a revival of the 1949 musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Carol Channing, who, at 28, had achieved stardom playing the Roaring Twenties gold-digger Lorelei Lee in that show, returned in the same role at the age of 52, beginning as a widow looking back on her racy youth (in a new song called Looking Back). Then, the familiar story was told as a flashback, with audiences expected to accept the mature Channing as a young flapper sailing to Europe. This they had little trouble doing. The show had toured for a year before reaching Broadway, and a cast album had been recorded just before the start of that tour. Changes were made in the show on that long road trip, so after the Broadway opening the cast was called into a recording studio to cut a few of the songs that had been added along the way, and a revised disc was issued as the original Broadway cast recording. This time, Brandon Maggart is no longer heard singing Im aTingle, Im aGlow, but Jack Fletcher instead sings Its Delightful Down in Chile with Channing. Paris, Paris, one of the newly written songs (on which lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green replaced the late Leo Robin, working with composer Jule Styne), is gone, but in its place is Men, an angry patter song reminiscent of Comden, Green, and Stynes If You Hadnt, but You Did from their 1951 revue Two on the Aisle and not really consistent with Lorelei Lees sunny character. Still present is the newly written title song, which recalls Hello, Dolly! but is not as successful. The resulting score does not impress as much as the original Gentlemen Prefer Blondes score, even though the cast is enthusiastic and Channing is as irresistible as ever. ~ William Ruhlmann