Legally Blonde the Musical is Pretty in Pink

The curtain opens. Omigosh, the stage is awash in pink, the new navy. It's all so glittery and sugary sweet like cotton candy. This is my idea of what the opening scene of Legally Blonde the Musical must look like. I spoke briefly of it on Sunday's Matinee but I had a lot more to say about it so thought it would make a good blog entry. I read several critiques and spoke to someone, a friend of a friend, who saw it and the following is what I gleaned from the many sources. From what I've read Legally Blonde is a high energy, dance-driven piece of sparkling fluff. The cast is loaded with talent, great dancers, great voices, lots of pizzazz. The bad thing is Reese Witherspoon isn't in it. I mean, if ever there was perfect casting it was Reese as Elle Woods, the California Valley girl who follows her rich haughty boyfriend, Warner Huntington III, to Harvard only to be rejected by him because of his political aspirations. "If I want to be a Senator, I need to marry a Jackie not a Marilyn." But Elle with her innate confidence continues her Harvard education and goes on to discover that you can use your brain without giving up the advantages of being blonde and beautiful, and staying true to yourself. Laura Bell Bundy in the role of Elle is a terrific singer and dancer, has oodles of energy but lacks the irresistible quirky egotism of Reese. I mean, how do you follow Reese Witherspoon? The role was tailor-made for her.

The opening number is one of the liveliest seen in years and the second act opener, an homage to Riverdance, is electrifying but the score for the most part is lackluster. They kept in the hilarious "Bend and Snap" number in which Elle's manicurist friend, Paulette, instructs her on how to drop and retrieve items to attract men. A worthy addition to the stage show is a Greek chorus of sorority sisters who comment on what is going on in Elle's head.

The general concensus of the critics, mostly male, is that although it is geared towards 'tween and teenage girls and their mothers and grandmothers, none of them were bored nor turned off. I'm really looking forward to seeing it with my daughter. It sounds like a perfect mother/daughter day out. Lunch and a matinee. Omigosh, awesome!!!!!!