Aoife Mulholland as Legally Blonde Brooke???

More casting rumours about who will be joining Sheridan Smith, Duncan James and Alex Gaumond in the West End premiere of Broadway screen-to-stage musical Legally Blonde, which starts previews at the Savoy Theatre in December (See News, 21 Apr 2009).

We hear that Aoife Mulholland has signed up to play Brooke Taylor Windham, a fitness video queen accused of murdering her rich elderly husband, who becomes Elle’s first client while interning at a law firm.

Mulholland shot to fame on TV’s How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, where the “Irish Maria” came fourth in the competition to cast the lead role in The Sound of Music. Since then, she has played Roxie in Chicago, and eventually returned to the hills at the London Palladium to play the alternative Maria alongside winner Connie Fisher. Mulholland has been away from the West End while producing and directing her own show Sway.

Legally Blonde, which premiered on Broadway in April 2007, is based on the 2001 Hollywood comedy in which Reese Witherspoon played California sorority girl Elle who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in an attempt to win him back. Sheridan Smith plays Ellie alongside ex-Blue pop star Duncan James as Elle’s heartbreaker college sweetheart Warner and Alex Gaumond as her new love interest Emmett.

The musical is directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. It has a book by Heather Hach and music and lyrics by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O’Keefe. Songs include “Ohmigod You Guys”, “Serious”, “The Harvard Variations”, “Whipped into Shape”, “Find My Way” and the title number.