Legally Blonde

The story is minimal, Elle an apparently dumb blonde gets herself an education so that she can follow her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in order to win him back. Being an attractive blonde she is stereotyped and not taken seriously by the establishment or her fellow students, she is tricked into wearing a bunny outfit at a party, she desperately wants to be taken seriously to win back Warner.

This is a show that requires a strong lead to carry it. The night I came along, understudy Becky Halpin was in the lead role, she acted, sang, and danced this demanding part with commitment throughout, however I would liked to have seen her wear heels even for a short time, rather than the black character shoes worn all evening, but still very well done Becky. I did like Duncan Ryan as the nice guy Emmett Forrest while Simon Yaxley as always shone, what a superb performance he gave as Professor Callahan the villain of the show. Much of the humour in the show is provided by beautician ‘Paulette’, played superbly by Ceri Hamer, she provided several of the highlights of the evening, and how the audience loved her solo, ‘Ireland’.

UPS guy ‘Kyle’, Matthew Neale appealed to the audience, he really had a fan club! Sarah Purcell pitched the bitchy ‘Vivienne’ very well indeed, and Hannah Morris as ‘Brooke’ also impressed. The rest of the cast showed much agility, their attention to detail throughout the evening never faltered, the Delta Nu ladies were on top form.

My colleague Eddie Regan came along to see Sophie Butler in the lead role of Elle Woods, and his comments are as follows. Sophie gave an outstanding performance as Elle, she was always in character and used the playing area to great effect. She coped well with a far from easy singing role. The part requires light and shade which she provided with ease. I did feel that diction suffered at the expense of the accent required, in some of the musical numbers, but overall Sophie made the most of this leading role.

I very much enjoyed the production with some excellent choreography. This show demands many scene changes, the lighting was good, props were well sourced, the cast coped well with some rapid costume changes. There was an extremely strong principle line up with everyone performing well, and not forgetting dogs Lola and Molly.

This was an enjoyable evening enhanced by an excellent orchestra. Thank you.

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