Legally Blonde The Musical – Review

When: July 2nd 2010

Where: Savoy Theatre, London

Cast:

Sheridan Smith as Elle Woods
Alex Gaumond as Emmett
Richard Fleeshman as Warner
Caroline Keiff as Vivienne
Aoife Mulholland as Brooke
Jill Halfpenny as Paulette
Peter Davison as Prof Callahan
Susan McFadden as Serena
Ibinabo Jack as Pilar
Amy Lennox as Margot

Well, I’ve been a little lazy with my reviewing of late and that’s partly down to birthdays, illness and just all around movie viewing funk.

The change comes in the form of Legally Blond the Musical.  Something I never planned on seeing as I’d seen the Broadway version on video and for me Elle Woods could be played by no other but Laura Bell Bundy.

How wrong I was.

Taking camp to the extreme, Legally Blonde The Musical follows the plot of the film but adds music. Elle Woods splits with her boyfriend Warner who’s off to Harvard and wants someone a little more serious and less trashy as a girlfriend.  Someone with status.  Elle forms this plan to show Warner she has the brains to be the one for him and applies to Harvard.  She gets in but unprepared for the harsh nature of the Law Course she’s signed on to, quickly becomes demoralised.

With the help of her Greek Chorus (The Sisters Of Delta Nu), her hairdresser Paulette and a teaching assistant named Emmott, Elle works hard and sets out to achieve her goal but perhaps on this journey she’ll learn something about herself that she never knew before.

With that said, the West End is on a role with their productions this year.  Legally Blonde may not have all the technicality and tricks of its Broadway counterpart but the amendments its made due to stage direction and limited stage space work really well, although there was the odd moment where the lyrics were changed for the worse.

The cast work hard to put the party spirit out there into the theatre even when things go wrong on stage they have fun with it, laughing at each other.  One of the male dancers during a very extensive dance routine had his hat fall in front of his face and it had to stay there for the duration of the routing smacking him in the face as there was no real pause to move it.

Sheridan Smith takes every opportunity to give the audience a sly wink and meaningful gaze along with the girls of the greek chorus.  Everything about this production oozes camp class. It’s the cast however who make it all worth while.

Sheridan Smith was the reason I wasn’t too keen on seeing this, she’s a comedy actress and I have never actually heard her sing apart from the god awful performance on Children in Need last year.  However, don’t let that fool you.  This woman has a set of lungs that will penetrate the sound barrier, the amount of time she held the note at the end of the first act was just breath taking and rather than leave the comedy acting at the door she used it to her advantage, provoking laughs from the audience with every bend and snap.  Much like Melanie C, Sheridan has proved herself to be every bit the leading lady of the West End stage.  She blew me away and made Elle a character you’d want to get to know, to like.

I would go on and on about the rest of the cast but someone from Warrington Collegiate to offence to my calling one of their actors a little bit camp.  OOPS! It was an observation!!

So I’ll just say the cast of Legally Blonde work very hard to bring the audience into the party atmosphere and it works, sometimes a little too well.  There’s a moment that prompts wolf whistles from the audience and some audience members carry on whistling throughout one of the tunes… I guess that’s down to your luck on the night though.

If you want an enjoyable night out in London away from the heavier plays and musicals of the West End then you REALLY can’t go wrong choosing Legally Blonde the Musical.

Sheridan Smith leaves the cast in October and I highly recommend you go and see it before she leaves the cast for good.  Rumours are she’s rehearsing for her next venture Bridget Jones the Musical.