Legally Blonde

In this, my first non-professional viewing of “Legally Blonde”, KYMT gave a first class performance – full of life and obvious cast enjoyment.

The lead role of Elle Woods was played at alternate performances by Lauren Conroy and Charlotte Gold. Although Lauren was on stage the night I saw the show, I was lucky enough to see Charlotte at the Dress Rehearsal. Both actresses gave stunning perfomances, although both quite different in style, in this demanding role.

Other characters in “supporting” roles – and I use the term “supporting” advisedly since each and every performer gave an individual character which was so important to the show -  Warner Huntington III (Ronan Corkey), Elle’s ex, displayed a suitable arrogance, while Emmett Forest (Robin MacKenzie) sings and acts well as the only person to help Elle in her forays into law school.

Possibly my favourite character in the show is beautician Paulette played superbly by Mhairi Urquhart.  Mhairi’s facial expressions together with totally competent singing and acting, provided several of the highlights of this show.  A case in point must be a show-stealing scene in the beauty salon with UPS Driver, Kyle (Scott Binnie) whose over-the-top serious demeanour, combined with Paulette’s open mouthed reaction to his manly physique brought the house down – without a word spoken! Later, in Act 11, their take on Riverdance was another of the memorable comedy moments of the show.

Choreography by Jillian Ogilvie was slick and innovative throughout, not least of all in the opening to Act 11 when Brooke Wyndham (Vanessa Crowe) leads the rest of the girls (and a boy)  in “Whipped into Shape”. A final mention for Nikos (Blair Hollingworth) and his boyfriend Carlos (Ross McKenzie) for providing more first class comedy moments when Carlos proclaims Nikos’ homosexuality and the dance that ensues.

There are so many individually named characters in this production, it would be impossible to name them all – however allow me to say a huge congratulations to each and every one of them for adding to an evening of first class entertainment.

On a technical note, the numerous scenes in Legally Blonde call for the speedy and smooth running from one to the next, and this was certainly evident tonight. Congratulations to set designer / stage manager John Urquhart and his crew.

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