Legally Blonde, The Musical

Legally Blonde, The Musical

14 January, 2010
by: Tom Jeffreys

The blockbuster teen movie gets a rousing musical makeover. Tom Jeffreys is easily impressed. 

“Oh. My. God. Omigod you guys!” From the very first chorus of Legally Blonde, The Musical, you know exactly what you’re going to get. And what you get is just over two hours of non-stop sparkly brilliance: the kind of bright pink, diamanté-encrusted whirlwind that whisks you up into the air and doesn’t let you down until, suddenly, it’s all happily ever after.

For those of you haven’t seen the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon – where have you been? – the plot is appropriately light. Rich, blonde, and loaded, high school princess Elle Woods (Sheridan Smith in the musical) is convinced that dream boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Duncan James of Blue fame) is about to propose to her before he goes off to Harvard Law School. But when he dumps her, claiming he needs someone a little more “serious”, Elle vows to follow him to Harvard.

Amusingly side-stepping the usual admissions process (instead of a covering letter is a raunchy cheerleader routine) Elle – pink-clad and with Chihuahua Bruiser in tow – arrives amongst the green/beige tweed-fest that is Harvard Law School. Once there however, she finds out that Warner is already engaged to severely bobbed and ambitious Vivian Kensington (Caroline Kieff, Wicked), whilst their law tutor, Professor Callahan (Peter Davison, Spamalot), is a ruthless despot, with an uncanny resemblance to Gene Hackman.

Elle is initially put off by the whole environment, but budding friendships with manicurist Paulette Bonafonte (Jill Halfpenny, Calendar Girls, Chicago) and fellow student, Emmett (Alex Gaumond, We Will Rock You) encourage her to knuckle down. A case involving a fitness instructor sees Elle come to the fore with a killer combination of lawyerly smarts and blonde West Coast sass. Realising (eventually) that Warner is actually rather boring, Elle wins the case, proposes to Emmett and all ends wonderfully. 

Listening back to the American soundtrack on Spotify, the whole thing is just a little too cheesy. But because the cast of the UK version consists predominantly of English actors doing American accents, the production gains an almost-satirical edge. Much credit for this must go to the wonderful Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager, The Royle Family) who brings a warm dose of quirky charm to a potentially saccharine role. She’s obviously having the time of her life: dancing, singing and snapping for all she’s worth. But there’s also an archness that cuts through the US wholesomeness and gives it a nice bit of Brit kick. Duncan James is of course nothing but bland, but that actually works rather well here. You know Elle deserves way better.

Elle’s pals – Serena, Pilar and Margot, (Susan McFadden, Ibinabo Jack and Amy Lennox respectively) – are completely brilliant: ditzy, athletic, high-octane versions of Karen and Gretchen from Mean Girls. In fact the whole cast is great, and the script is razor-sharp. With lots of little details to keep the whole thing interesting (Paulette’s romantic obsession with Ireland, for example, or the perfume named Subtext, by Calvin Klein) Legally Blonde, The Musical is so much better than it really needs to be: you get the impression people would flock to this even if it were terrible. It isn’t. Quick, clever, knowing, energetic, with amazing costumes and belting tracks throughout, this has to be like the greatest musical ever. Omigod, you guys!

Legally Blonde, The Musical is at the Savoy Theatre until 22nd May 2010.

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Tom Jeffreys