College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn't take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone serious, Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and heads for Harvard Law! Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style. In its first year on Broadway Legally Blonde The Musical earned seven Tony nominations and ten Drama Desk Award nominations as well as winning an Outer Critics’ Circle Award. The Broadway production of Legally Blonde The Musical concluded its run in October 2008 and is currently packing out houses across America in its hugely successful two year tour with international dates in Japan and Canada soon to be announced. In 2001 Amanda Brown’s novel Legally Blonde was made into a film starring Reese Witherspoon, produced by MGM and directed by Robert Luketic.
After attending one of the multiple press nights for the West End transfer of Legally Blonde, critics finally aired their views this morning on the show that promises “so much fun it shouldn't be legal”.
The musical comedy, which premiered on Broadway in April 2007, is based on the 2001 Hollywood film in which Reese Witherspoon played California sorority girl Elle Woods who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in an attempt to win him back.
Sheridan Smith stars as Elle, with ex-Blue pop star Duncan James as Elle’s heartbreaker college sweetheart Warner and Alex Gaumond as her new love interest Emmett (See News, 21 Jul 2009). Peter Davison is Harvard professor Callahan and Jill Halfpenny is Paulette, the hairdresser who Elle befriends.
Legally Blonde marks the Broadway and West End directorial debut for Jerry Mitchell, a previous Whatsonstage.com Best Choreographer Award winner for Hairspray and The Full Monty.
The word 'ohmigod' was employed liberally as critics joined the “screaming fan girls” for a night of unashamed “frivolity”. Not all liked what they saw – more than one compared it unfavourably to Hairspray, while the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts required “a large squirt of interval vino” to get through. But others had a whale of a time, including the Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer, who “really tried to hate this show”, but found that resistance was futile. The star of the show was undoubtedly Sheridan Smith, who managed to avoid being upstaged by her chihuahua to deliver a performance as Elle that several critics felt superior to Reese Witherspoon's in the original film.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (three stars) - “Jerry Mitchell’s production, played out on a series of amazing primary-coloured, day-glo sets by David Rockwell that obliterate the supposed cultural distinctions between East coast and West in America, is a thing of mechanical wonder. But it’s not a patch on Hairspray … It moves like the clappers, and features a knock-out performance by Sheridan Smith as Elle Woods … But it has no sense, really, of its own period … The music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin are serviceable but mediocre; the lyrics are better than the music … Good guy Emmett Forrest is a much more rewarding role, as likeable Alex Gaumond proves, while Peter Davison does a crude outline of the law professor who hits on Elle as soon as he offers her a job. Smith is as cheeky and vibrant as she always is, but her wigs are a disaster.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent (four stars) - “'What I'd give to be one of those dogs!' I remarked to the young woman sitting next to me at this wonderful new musical version of Legally Blonde … Sensing that I, too, was a fan – and, boy, was my neighbour a fan (she was booked to see the show three times in advance of the official reviews) – she let out a squeal of what I took to be approval. Her delight in the proceedings was infectious … I had thought snootily that the stage show of Legally Blonde might put the 'ugh' in 'euuuugh!' But omigod was I like totally blown away. It may not be quite as good as Hairspray (it lacks that show's lovely, double-bluffing libertarian dimension), but it's ridiculously enjoyable from start to finish and camp peroxide-perfection in terms of its showbiz roots.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (four stars) - “OMIGOD! I tried, I really tried to hate this show, but resistance is futile … The stage show has its tongue in its cheek throughout, it knows it is ridiculous and infantile, and celebrates the fact with knowing wit … This is rom-com with a welcome touch of irony … Director and choreographer Jerry Mitchell keeps it all light, fast, fun and frothy … The chief glory of the show is Sheridan Smith as Elle, blessed with vitality, warmth, great comic timing and sudden moments of touching vulnerability. She is infinitely more likeable than Reese Witherspoon in the film. There’s strong support, too, from Jill Halfpenny as the down-at-heart hairdresser Elle befriends; from Peter Davison, playing against type as a predatory shark of a lawyer; from Duncan James as the insufferably smug boyfriend; Alex Gaumond as the decent chap in unflattering corduroys who finally wins her heart and Chris Ellis-Stanton as a hilarious hunk of a UPS Delivery Man.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail - “It is pink not just in the colour of many of the clothes and stage effects. It is pink to the core of its little, tiny soul … The plot is pap, the musical unmemorable, the dancing often hefty except for one routine with skipping ropes … Miss Smith’s singing voice is not strong but she brings a likeable cheekiness to the part. A crueller critic might wonder if she is glamorous enough for the role … After a large squirt of interval vino the frivolity is somehow easier to take. Easily the best song of the night is a humorous number about a courtroom witness being gay. Its cleverness is almost worthy of Gilbert and Sullivan … Elle, who finds happiness by bonding with her fellow girlies, warbles at the end: ‘I was living in ignorant bliss, till I knew I could be more than this.’ The same could be said of this whole show.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (three stars) - “ … for all its absurdity, I found this Broadway musical infinitely more enjoyable than the 2001 Hollywood movie on which it is based … Although the score by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin improves as it goes along, it begins with a screeching evocation of sorority life that made me think back wistfully to the seductive choric opening of a 60s show like Bye Bye Birdie … Sheridan Smith as Elle is also far more vivacious than Reese Witherspoon. Smith is perky, trim, and sings and dances excellently. But her true star quality lies in her sense of mischief … Blessed with the long upper lip of a natural comic, Smith sails buoyantly through the show with a radiant smile as if warning us not to take it too seriously … Mitchell's choreography also gives the show a lift and there is good support from Alex Gaumond as Elle's campus ally, Jill Halfpenny as the messed-up manicurist, and Chris Ellis-Stanton as the hilariously macho messenger boy.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) - “Omygod, as a jazzily dressed set of sorority sisters keep squealing at the start of the delightful, annoying, supremely wishful musical that’s just come frolicking into Blighty from Broadway … All along you can see where Jerry Mitchell’s production is going, but, really, who cares? Certainly not the young women near me. They greeted the performers, especially a chirpy but mischievous Smith, as best friends … Let’s overlook some forgettable tunes and welcome dance that embraces everything from skipping with ropes to spoof Riverdance. Let’s relish the support both of a fake-Greek chorus dressed as cheerleaders and of two cute, unnaturally obedient dogs. Let’s agree that Legally Blonde is, well, fun.”
For a musical comedy show that name-checks Gloria Steinem and Thomas Hobbes, features a Greek chorus and lewd lines about the boning of skanks and the flaunting of packages, Legally Blonde might sound like an unholy alliance between Martin Crimp and Steven Berkoff with a few tunes by Tom Waits thrown in to cheer us up.
Actually, such a show I wouldn’t mind seeing. I didn’t much mind Legally Blonde either, but of course there’s something else about it: it’s very pink, it operates on the nudge-nudge assumption that all blondes are stupid or frivolous – the legal case is won in the end by a hair-care demonstration – and it’s highly, you could say exhaustingly, energetic.
Jerry Mitchell’s production, played out on a series of amazing primary-coloured, day-glo sets by David Rockwell that obliterate the supposed cultural distinctions between East coast and West in America, is a thing of mechanical wonder. But it’s not a patch on Hairspray.
It moves like the clappers, and features a knock-out performance by Sheridan Smith as Elle Woods, the jilted Californian blonde who qualifies for Harvard Law School in order to track down the man who thinks he’s going places. But it has no sense, really, of its own period.
And Heather Hach’s libretto follows the film far too faithfully. The narrative strands of Elle’s friend Paulette (well done by Jill Halfpenny) finding her dog, an ugly bull, and then her man, a dumb Irishman, and the defence in court of the fitness coach widow Brooke Wyndham (Aoife Mulholland), don’t work on stage in the same way, and seem arbitrarily lumped together.
Some serious tricks are missed, too: Smith’s entrance at the “fancy dress” as a bunny girl is neither funny nor sad enough, and the big “Bend and Snap” number is less of a musical highlight than it is in the film, without music. The music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin are serviceable but mediocre; the lyrics are better than the music.
The latter’s vapidity is badly exposed in the slow love song for Elle and her ambitious Warner, though it’s very well sung by Smith and Duncan James; just as well in the latter’s case, as he has little else to do except look smarmy, which he does perfectly.
Good guy Emmett Forrest is a much more rewarding role, as likeable Alex Gaumond proves, while Peter Davison does a crude outline of the law professor who hits on Elle as soon as he offers her a job. Smith is as cheeky and vibrant as she always is, but her wigs are a disaster. In the chorus, you can talent-spot her understudy Amy Lennox, who looks just right without the hair-pieces, and more the right age, really.
fun-sexy. you have to be reallly boring if you dont leave the theatre happy :) - bj
12 Mar 10
I first saw Legally Blonde in New York and the transfer offers an opportunity to see why musical comedy has a natural home on Broadway. Firstly the Savoy's stage is too narrow which makes the sets look cheap but the biggest difference is the performances. On Broadway everyone, down to the swings, performs as if their lives depend on it; in the West End there can sometimes be a major drop off from the leads to the ensemble and this is certainly the case here. There are good supporting performances from Jill Halfpenny and Alex Gaumond and Aoife Mulholland looks stunning. Of course the whole show revolves around Elle Woods and I am not sure that Sheridan Smith is the best casting. She spends a lot of time metaphorically winking at the audience which suggests that she knows it's all a bit rubbish and she doesn't sing as well as when she was in Little Shop of Horrors. At the risk of being ungallant she also looks a bit too old to play a Valley Girl. However her sheer exuberance and energy wins you over and you can't help rooting for Elle. The same goes for the show itself - on second viewing it's clear that Legally Blonde has very little substance but it's impossible to resist the relentless Red Bull rush (blatant product best placement alert) and it's to surrender to mindless, undemanding fun. - David Baxter
04 Mar 10
Well, after seeing Sister Act, Priscilla and Legally Blond over the course of 3 days. I now announce Priscilla as the feel good musical of the moment.
Legally Blond, in my opinion is the reverse of Sister Act, which I think has a great score with a poor book. Legally Blond has a funny and entertaining book and a very weak score.
The performances on the whole were very good and Sheridan is really a treat to watch, I was captivated by her performance.
While not a great show, it is still entertaining. However if you want to come out of the theatre smiling from ear to ear and with a spring in your step...I suggest Priscilla. - Nesby
22 Feb 10
Witless, pointless, terrible - my boyfriend Raymond took me for. Pre-valentine's treat since I loved the movie. But this was nothing like it! Go to priscilla instead. - Sonia
08 Feb 10
I took my girlfriend and we both thought it was a really bad play. She loved it on the movie and said it was nowhere near as good. - Raymond
08 Feb 10
Poor, went with such high expectations after seeing 4 stars from whatsonstage. A real disappointment, and an expensive one at that! - Mary Brogan
08 Feb 10
Don't bother - Penny
08 Feb 10
This is such fun. Yes, it's predictable, yes it's all a bit sub-Hairspray, but for a fluffy, mindless, well produced night out, this delivers. The set looks very cheap, but all is well when the superbly drilled cast are giving their all. The only weak link in a fine company is Duncan James, all smarm and no charm, but Sheridan Smith really sparkles as Elle, and she has great support from Jill Halfpenny, Alex Gaumond and Susan McFadden. The poppy score is catchy, the lyrics are rather inspired, and all in all I saw throughout with a big, dopey grin on my face! - ajh
21 Jan 10
I had a blast, but had I paid (not that I would pay £60 for this sort of thing) I might have been less thrilled. Sheridan Smith is superb, and I disagree with Michael about the lyrics - my friend and I found them suprisingly witty and fun. But musically poor and the set is rather a mess, it looks like it has been salvaged from a number of different shows. - Jon
18 Jan 10
Leading lady Ms SM ****
I can see her winning many awards.
Second leading man Mr DJ **
singing still weak but charming.
music score **
not memerable I can see why it flops on Broadway.
lyrics ****
witty
set *
not West End standard. - from an audience point of view
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