Review: Light and fluffy, Legally Blonde a perfect summer musical
Legally Blonde The Musical could be subtitled Not So Clueless.
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When main character Elle Woods turns up at Harvard, we're supposed to be as shocked as her former boyfriend Warner Huntington III. But when we first met her, she was, after all, at a university majoring in marketing. When she set her mind to qualifying for Harvard, she made that happen, with the help of her equally astute sorority sisters.
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Emmett, who starts as her mentor and ends up being her new love interest, says it best when he points out Elle's IQ drops to 40 whenever Warner is in the room. The bimbo facade is what he wanted, so she gave it to him. We're supposed to love Elle because she doesn't drop the blond persona just because she is at Harvard. That highlights one of the themes of the musical: that you have to be true to yourself.
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Legally Blonde is two hours of silly, predictable, girl-power behaviour from stereotypes rather than characters and, under Stephanie Graham's direction, it is one of the pinkest, gayest romps imaginable.
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When Emmett first visits Elle's dorm room, he discovers she lives on energy drinks, which presumably explains her eternally effervescent behaviour. In this way, the musical is like Elle. While you're ingesting it, you feel energized and elated, but those feelings wear off quickly once it's over.
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Legally Blonde is a musical without memorable music. Say what you want about Andrew Lloyd Webber, but when you leave one of his musicals, you're humming at least one tune. Think Memory from Cats, Don't Cry For Me Argentina from Evita, or I Don't Know How to Love Him from Superstar. You don't come out of Legally Blonde humming Blood in the Water, Omigood You Guys, or Whipped into Shape. They are fun in context, but they don't live outside the musical, because they are more dialogue than songs.
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Graham, who also choreographed Legally Blonde, gives us everything from cheerleading to exercise moves, and it's always high energy.
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The fairest thing to be said about Legally Blonde is it's a genuine crowd pleaser. All the laughs and the feel-good moments are in the right places, and Graham knows how to punctuate them. There is no question that this is a fun evening, and Graham has assembled a most talented cast.
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