Pamela Blair which later opened at the Kennedy Center to critical acclaim. She also appeared in "Sugar", the stage musical version of the film "Some Like It Hot", in which she played "Sugar Kane", a role made famous by Marilyn Monroe. In 1974, Blair was invited by Michael Bennett to participate in the workshops from which "A Chorus Line" was developed. The character of "Valerie Clark" was in large part, based on her own life, although the surgical enhancement came from another dancer. "Val was based on Mitzi Hamilton, who actually underwent surgery to enhance her figure, and Pam Blair, whose mixture
Marilyn Monroe remember her lines or act as directed – Curtis famously stated that kissing her was "like kissing Hitler" due to the number of re-takes. Monroe herself privately likened the production to a sinking ship and commented on her co-stars and director saying "[but] why should I worry, I have no phallic symbol to lose." Many of the problems stemmed from a conflict between her and Wilder, who also had a reputation for being difficult, on how she should play the character. Monroe made Wilder angry by asking him to alter many of her scenes, which in turn made her stage