Legally Blonde

LODS Legally Blonde

Director/ Choreographer – Sallie Warrington 

Musical Director – Natalie Thurlow

Performed at Palace Theatre Thursday 2nd May 2024 at 7:30pm                    

Legally Blonde is one of my favourite musicals, filled with energy, multiple great story lines and plenty of ear worms! 

Sallie Warrington is certainly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to directing and choreography with this production being no exception. 

This production really was the sum of all its parts and stood out as a strong ensemble piece with every single cast member bringing enthusiasm and professionalism to the stage. Some of the character choices made by the supporting roles added great extra comedic moments and I particularly enjoyed scenes such as “Serious” and “Gay or European” for this reason, with multiple mini scenes being played out across the stage. 

Our leading lady, Elle Woods was played by the talented Eleanor Warner-Larthe. Elle is an incredibly demanding role as she practically never leaves the stage and Eleanor made it look effortless with beautiful vocals and an abundance of energy for the slick dance routines. 

Emmett Forrest was played by Declan Wright who is always such a joy to watch on stage and once again he nailed every riff and complimented Eleanor's vocals perfectly in their numbers together. 

Warner Huntington III, played by James Cohen once again showed us some great vocals as did Warners new love interest, Vivienne Kensington played by Anna Lawrance.

Michelle Taylor gave us a stellar performance as the lovable Paulette Bonafonte. Michelle has great comedic timing and characterisation. I particularly enjoyed “Bend and Snap” which was brilliantly executed.

I loved Nathan Gray as “Dewey” and later as “Kyle” both were very funny with some very strategically placed packages, at times. Nathan and Michelle worked well together.

Simon Sharpe certainly did manage to perfect his “inner sleaze” for Professor Callahan. Great characterisation and very believable performance.

The Delta Nu's were full of energy and lit up the stage whenever they entered. They had mastered the challenging choreography and gave us some great harmonies too.

Stephanie Clark (Serena), Nadia Beaumont (Margot) Leah Ffloyd (Pilar) and Sophie Cave (Kate) all had great characterisation and were such fun to watch.

“Whipped into Shape” will forever be one of my favourite numbers to open an Act. Joanne Halliday as Brooke Wyndham was every inch the fitness icon.

The band and cast sounded fantastic under the musical direction of Natalie Thurlow. It is such a pity that at times, mics were not turned up on time which meant we lost some of the supporting casts lines.

I know, from experience, that timing can be a little tricky with some of the numbers in this score and there were occassions where cast came in a little early or almost ran out of music but I understand that during this performance the MD was playing keyboard and was unable to conduct. The cast did well to keep the pace going regardless.

Costumes were excellent and there were some great on stage costume changes. There was a slight malfunction during Emmetts costume change but he handled it well and the audience were smiling along with Eleanor and Declan as they finished the scene. 

The set was great and used effectively with fairly seamless scene changes throughout.

Overall this was a very enjoyable evening and I'd like to thank LODS for their hospitality.

Congratulations to everyone involved.

 

Natalie Hills

District 10

NODA East

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