Rachel Bloom’s ‘Crazy’ Marilyn Moment

Comedienne Rachel Bloom has spoofed a classic Marilyn moment from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in an episode of her musical sitcom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (in which she plays Rebecca, a woman in the thrall of romantic delusions), reports the Los Angeles Times. You can watch the scene (from Season 2, Episode 3) in full here.

“‘There was kind of a self-indulgent hubris, where she truly thinks she has two men in love with her,’ said Bloom of her quest to capture the sound of that romantic delusion musically. ‘She thinks she is the center of everything. That’s Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend. That’s Marilyn Monroe. That’s a ’40s song where you’re surrounded by boys.’

So when inspiration struck, she did what any good songwriter on a deadline would do: She reached for her laptop that sat on her bamboo bath caddy and started jotting down lyrics.

It wasn’t long before the show’s music producer, Adam Schlesinger, received a voicemail with Bloom’s bare-bones rendition of this week’s big musical number, ‘The Math of Love Triangles’, which finds Rebecca cooing in a baby-doll voice — a la Monroe in ‘Diamonds’ — about what a hardship it is to have two guys in love with her.

‘The hardest part of writing these songs is landing on the specific idea,’ Bloom said. ‘Once we’ve landed on it, then stuff starts rolling. And there’s editing and there’s tweaking and there’s rewriting. But there’s a kind of rolling down the hill that you feel once you hit on the right comedy premise.’

And a bit of creativity is sometimes needed when trying to get certain aspects of those premises to pass Broadcast Standards and Practices. For example, with The Math of Love Triangles, the line, ‘Are you erect?’ could only pass muster if Bloom’s Rebecca was physically adjusting the posture of a dancer.

On the day of production of The Math of Love Triangles, Bloom was concerned that she might be revealing too much side boob because of her blue strapless gown or that the male dancers should be more expressive with their facial reactions.

After a take was complete, she slipped out of her character’s strappy heels and into some slippers to watch a playback.

‘I think it’s great,’ Bloom said. ‘It all came together!'”