Legally Blonde: The Musical – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – March 1, 2011
The Broadway Across Canada tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical opened tonight in Vancouver for a limited run of 8 shows. If you like smiling and laughing (and pink) you should make an effort to get out to see it. Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster.
The musical adaptation of the 2001 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name, Legally Blonde tells the “fish out of water” tale of Elle Woods and her journey from vapid, blonde “Malibu Barbie” to Harvard Law student and legal wiz. Along the way Elle faces many obstacles, rivals and roadblocks, while looking outstanding in a dazzling array of bubblegum pink outfits.
Don’t feel that you have to have seen the movie to enjoy this musical, in fact it might even be better if you haven’t seen it. This adaptation eliminates and combines a few characters and scenes to give room to some brilliant comedic singing and dancing with a little romance…ok, a bunch of romance thrown in along the way.
Lead Nikki Bohne does an amazing job of growing up, from a ditsy college senior into a capable “serious” Harvard grad student, before our eyes. The supporting cast and chorus include male leads Matthew Ragas as Warner Huntington III, Elle’s college boyfriend who she follows to Harvard, and Nic Rouleau as Emmett Forrest, the Yale law teaching assistant who helps her to find herself. Supporting Elle and lending an sympathetic ear is Paulette the hairdresser with the lackluster lovelife, played with over-the-top verve by Jillian Wallach.
Although there seemed to be some slight audio tweaks that were done during the first number all of the cast sounded great and the dance numbers were excellent. Especially the second act which gets into some of the larger song and dance pieces. All of it was FUN, I would think it hard to find someone who didn’t smile throughout the show (or at least part of the time) and I’m sure there was hardly anyone who didn’t leave the theatre humming “Oh My Gawd, Oh My Gawd, You Guys!”
Huge Thanks to Vancouver Events Gal, Catherine Barr and NorthVancouver.Com for holding the contest so I could win these tickets to the performance!