I am among the percentage of the theatre-loving public who are consistently sceptical about musicals made from movies. Having resisted going to see Legally Blonde before now for that very reason, I went with reservations, eager to see if the production was going to prove me wrong. To a large extent it did; on a lesser level it measured up against my scepticism.
This production has a strong ensemble and strong leads; it’s brilliant to see a very talented musical theatre actress and not a celebrity head up the cast. Faye Brooks brings Elle Woods to the stage with all the cheery-girly sparkles and cuteness in the world of theatre (I doubt there’ll be any left after the tour has finished!) bundled up with strong vocals. She’s great. Liz McClarnon (former Atomic Kitten member) is brilliant as Paulette Buonufonte. McClarnon isn’t relying on the audience to buy into her character because of her previous credits; the actress is completely absorbed in the role, delivering with humour, oomph and a big bag of brashy Brooklyn-ness.
Overall the production is an explosion of blonde-ness, colour and girly, teenage, chick-flick fun fun fun. I left feeling proud to be blonde. There is something for everyone, whether you’re a kid, teenager, adult or kidult. It’s a tongue-in-cheek, humorous, pacey, snappy, slick, sassy show which doesn’t let moments linger into oblivion. While this is great, as the younger members of the audience will be kept engaged in the production, it is slightly too quick at times; one liners are missed and swallowed dialogue meant that there were echoes of 'what did they say?' murmured in the auditorium.
Musically, the show has two or three numbers that you’ll leave the theatre humming; the rest of the tunes sound like a combination of recycled melodies and tunes that other composers didn’t want to use. The direction is on the whole gritty, witty and intelligently done; while this filled me with hope that finally there was a musical theatre director who could resist using centre stage at every single solo, my elation was dampened when the centre stage trap was fallen into again and again. The choreography swayed between simple, effective, non-overbearing movement which supported the scene and big production number extravaganzas. The creative team have pitched the show very well and haven’t tried to make it something that it’s not. The tongue-in-cheek nature is evident in all aspects of the production, which adds an air of ‘Serious? Who us?? Noooooo!’ - totally spot on. If the show took itself seriously it would not have the impact that it has.
A punchy, sassy, full of guts show, which underneath our cute appearance, us blondes are famous for! Great for a girly fun night out.
Legally Blonde--the musical is on national tour.
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