Given the frothiness of the 2001 movie “Legally Blonde,” I was prepared to hate “Legally Blonde,” the Broadway-bound musical that made its debut this week in San Francisco. Instead, the $12 million show won me over by virtue of sheer high-spiritedness.
The show offers plenty to make it a commercial success: an attractive young cast, nonstop dance numbers, flashy sets and costumes, and occasionally a clever lyric or line of dialogue – even if the music is generic at best, and the story is an absurd fantasy.
Elle Woods (Laura Bell Bundy, a sexier version of Reese Witherspoon’s willful character in the movie), is a California blonde and clotheshorse who manages to get into Harvard Law School to chase after her snooty boyfriend. As in the film, she faces hostile classmates, intimidating professors and rejection by the boyfriend, yet she triumphs over all in this fairy tale of girl empowerment.
“I may be in love, but I’m not stupid,” she declares early in the first act.
Even Elle’s Dad has his doubts: “Law school is for boring, ugly, serious people,” he observes, “and you are none of those things.” Yet sure enough, after some quick and apparently painless hitting of the books, Elle leaves behind the girls of the Delta Nu sorority at UCLA – her “Greek chorus” – and finds herself in Harvard Yard.
Further challenges remain: surviving the criminal-law class taught by Professor Callahan (Michael Rupert, evocatively threatening and smarmy); making over his nerdy teaching assistant, Emmett (Christian Borle), so he can become her next boyfriend; and being recruited to Callahan’s team of interns working on a murder case.
Nonstop Numbers Jerry Mitchell, a veteran Broadway choreographer (“Hairspray,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”) in his directing debut, keeps the action moving at a breakneck pace, with one massive production number followed immediately by another. While the singing is over-amplified and the overlapping lyrics are sometimes hard to follow, the dancing is sheer, high-energy pleasure, especially the scenes that involve Paulette the trailer-trash beautician (Orfeh) and Kyle the UPS man (Andy Karl).
The show, at 2 1/2 hours with intermission, features music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe (“Bat Boy”) and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hach, based on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film and Amanda Brown’s novel.
(Hach is an alumna of Denver’s Impulse Comedy Theatre. Annaleigh Ashford (formerly Swanson), who grew up on Denver stages, will make her Broadway debut originating the role of ditzy sorority sister Margot.)
David Rockwell’s constantly changing set – with doorways rising from the floor, walls flying down from above and furniture rolling in from the wings – moves seamlessly from the sorority house to the law school to the courtroom. Gregg Barnes’s costumes, with plenty of pink for Elle and an ocean of skimpy outfits for the UCLA girls, are bright and amusing.
Graduation Day Soon enough it’s graduation day, with Elle at the top of her class and all challenges tied up with a neat bow. The chorus reprises “Omigod You Guys,” and it’s hard not to feel a boost.
“Legally Blonde” runs through Feb. 24 at the Golden Gate Theater, Market and 6th streets, San Francisco. Tickets are $35 to $90. For more information, call 415-512-7770 or see bestofbroadway-sf.com. Broadway previews begin on April 3.
(Stephen West is an editor for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own. Email him at smwest@bloomberg.net”)
