Dirty Blonde (play)
Encyclopedia
Dirty Blonde is a play by Claudia ShearClaudia Shear
Claudia Shear is an American actress and playwright.The Brooklyn-born Shear first came to prominence with her 1994 self-penned solo performance piece Blown Sideways Through Life, which enjoyed a run of 221 performances at the off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theatre and won her an Obie Award and a Drama...
.
Conceived by Shear and James Lapine
James Lapine
James Lapine is an American stage director and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.-Biography:Lapine was born in Mansfield, Ohio and graduated...
and featuring songs from I'm No Angel
I'm No Angel
I'm No Angel is Mae West's third motion picture. West received sole story and screenplay credit. A young Cary Grant plays her leading man for the second time. Being Pre-Code, this was one of the few Mae West movies that was not subjected to heavy censorship...
and She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong
She Done Him Wrong is a Pre-Code 1933 Paramount Pictures comedy romance film starring Mae West and Cary Grant. Others in the cast include Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr., Louise Beavers and Rochelle Hudson....
, it explores the phenomenon
Phenomenon
A phenomenon , plural phenomena, is any observable occurrence. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'...
of the legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
ary Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, one of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's most enduring and controversial pop culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
s. 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
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
's film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
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
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the woman they worship.
The play had its first staging at the off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
New York Theatre Workshop in early 2000. After 20 previews, the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production, with Shear as Jo/West directed by Lapine, opened on May 1, 2000 at the Helen Hayes Theatre
Helen Hayes Theatre
Helen Hayes Theatre with 597 seats is the smallest Broadway theatre and is located at 240 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan....
, where it ran for 352 performances. Kevin Chamberlin
Kevin Chamberlin
- Life :Chamberlin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Moorestown Township, New Jersey, moving there as a nine-year old. Chamberlin graduated from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.- Career :...
and Bob Stillman
Bob Stillman
Bob Stillman is an American actor, singer, and songwriter.He studied piano at Juilliard, and made his broadway debut in Grand Hotel as Erik; was a replacement cast member in Kiss of the Spider Woman; gave a Tony nominated performance as a pianist and actor in Broadway's Dirty Blonde, played a...
comprised the remainder of the cast. Kathy Najimy
Kathy Najimy
Kathy Ann Najimy is an American actress, most notable as Olive Massery on the television series Veronica's Closet, Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act and the voice of Peggy Hill on the animated television series King of the Hill. Prior to her film work, she was best known for two Off Broadway shows...
replaced Shear later in the run.
The play is one of the few in Broadway history to have its entire cast nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
. It has been produced in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and by regional theatre
Regional theatre in the United States
Regional theaters, or resident theaters, in the United States are professional or semi-professional, theater companies that produce their own seasons. The term regional theatre most often refers to professional theatres outside of New York City...
s throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Song list
- "Dirty Blonde"
- "A Guy What Takes His Time"
- "Cuddle Up and Cling to Me"
- "I Found a New Way to Go to Town"
- "I'm No Angel"
- "I Love It"
- "I Want You, I Need You"
- "I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone"
- "Oh My, How We Pose"
- "Perfect Love"
Awards and nominations
- Tony Award for Best Play (nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Shear, nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Chamberlin and Stillman, nominees)
- Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (nominee)
- Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
(Shear, winner) - Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding New Play (nominee) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play (Chamberlin, nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play (Shear, nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (nominee)