Try to imagine Xena the Warrior Princess in a role made famous by Jane Russell.
Or Claudia from ``Spin City'' singing ``Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend.''
Not much imagination is needed, since Lucy Lawless and Faith Prince star in ``Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,'' which opens today and runs through Sunday at the 5th Avenue Theatre.
Jule Styne and Leo Robin wrote the light-hearted musical for larger-than-life stars, says Director David Armstrong. That's why Lorelei Lee (Prince) could be played effectively by actors as diverse as Carol Channing on Broadway
and Marilyn Monroe in film.
``Good writing adapts itself to the personality you put in it,'' Armstrong says.
By staging a concert-style performance -- a first for Seattle-- the 5th Avenue Theatre was able to attract bonafide stars.
With ``minimal but inventive'' sets, costumes and lighting, ``Gentlemen'' will be enhanced by the Seattle Men's Chorus. The collaboration is another first.
Armstrong intended from the beginning to mount a concert-style production as a limited engagement, based on successful series in New York and Los Angeles.
With Prince and Lawless, ``it's like a dream cast, which you could probably never put together for a full-run,'' he says.
Also in the cast are local television personalities John Curley and Pat Cashman, portraying two Clouseau-style French detectives who are outwitted by the sexy women, Armstrong says.
But the stars are Prince, who won a Tony for playing Adelaide in a revival of ``Guys & Dolls'' and currently appears in ``Huff'' on Showtime, and Lawless, a musical star in her native New Zealand who sang and danced in a
Broadway revival of ``Grease.''
Lawless is ``very much not like Xena in real life,'' Armstrong says. ``People will see a whole different side of her.''
That's part of the attraction, as is the rarity of staging ``Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.''
``It's a show most people have never seen,'' Armstrong says. ``One of the great joys is hearing it with the original orchestration,'' enhanced by the 250-voice Men's Chorus.
``Where else,'' Armstrong asks, ``can you see a musical done with 300 people on-stage?''
`GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES'
* Today to Sunday
* 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday
* 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., Seattle
* $27-$77 from 206-292-2787
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