Legally Blonde The Musical

This was an opening night when the young cast burst on to the stage full of vitality and maintained the energy to the end. As the story unfolded - a young girl motivated initially by love and seen by others only as a blonde with all its clichés - the strength of the main characters became apparent. In developing the lead role of Elle Woods, Emily Knowles showed a maturity beyond her years, never missing a beat, going from rejected lover, studying hard to follow him to Harvard and discovering within herself resilience and a realisation of what matters in life. Her acting and singing skills portrayed the differing emotions and drew the audience to her. In this she was matched by Josh Ure as Emmet who ably conveyed the hardships and determination for making his way in a world without privilege. His singing was powerful and telling. James Bradley as Warner one of the privileged conveyed the selfish character who later learned what he had lost. His unthinking prejudice was well conveyed in ‘Serious’. The brusque, concentrated law lecturer Professor Callaghan was well delivered by David Mack gaining respect for his career especially by the well sung ‘Blood in the Water' then losing it all with the assault on the young blonde Elle. So too was this action a turning point for Vivienne the privileged law student who had played dirty tricks on Elle. Robyn Burns dealt creditably with this turn around letting us see her understanding that the biased attitude towards girls affected her too. As a contrast and parallel in a kind of side plot Holly Marshall as Paulette, Elle’s friend from a different background delighted with her Irish humour and pathos and her Delivery man Nic Brown showed to a nicety how to engage an audience in his cheeky likeable march across the stage expertly twirling the delivery box and maintaining that rapport without saying a word.  Abbey Wyndham gave an entertaining prisoner with her skipping rope number as one of her roles. Elle was ably supported by three girls who accompanied her as a kind of chorus, singing, gyrating, and dancing - Libby Hardie, Erin Boyd and Isla Paton. In minor roles, Cara Armstrong as Enid, Gabriel Westwood as Dewey and others, Scott Gliddon as Winthrop and other, Daniel Hammond as Sundeep and other youngsters in named parts, all deserve congratulations for their characterisations. The whole chorus dealt well with some very difficult songs while their movement was exhilarating, exercising very energetic choreography. Costumes were authentic for the times. The show was well staged with background signage projected above a raised platform with two sets of steps which provided options. Scenes were swiftly set by props being carried on by the cast and by unobtrusive stage crew, and lighting was sympathetic and complementary. The production team and officials must have been very proud of this first night. Lots of talent here. Congratulations to all on a wonderful show.

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