Omigod you guys! VOS has brought Legally Blonde to life in a peppy, fun, easy to enjoy show!
For those of you not versed in early 2000s movies, Legally Blonde was a movie starring Reese Witherspoon about a California-based sorority girl who gets into Harvard law to try to win back her ex-boyfriend. Even though Elle doesn’t fit in with the other Harvard students, she’s determined to win a spot in a prestigious internship, the same one the whole class is vying for. The original movie is not a musical, but this fun adaptation adds a level of sparkle to the original source material.
VOS’ version welcomes a full cohort of actors to the stage and all were high energy from track one. Deftly choreographed by Emma Wilde, this show hit all the big numbers in just the right way. This show worked best with the ensemble numbers, especially when leaning in to the campy aspects. While the entire ensemble and all the leads were overall quite strong, the standout performances for me were Rae Paxton as Brooke Wyndham and Kathryn Humphries as Paulette. Whipped into Shape included the most demanding choreography and Paxton somehow managed to do it all without needing supplemental oxygen (I was exhausted just watching her!) Humphries’ Ireland somehow made the hilarious ballad seem sweet and longing as it was comical. And, I have to give it to Ben Scoones, the comedic timing of his Kyle was absolutely perfect.
For the most part, this show hit every mark without fail, but there were a few instances of missing lighting cues, mics cutting out, or not hitting every note at times. My biggest criticism overall is that I’m really not sure this show resonates with me.
Watching Legally Blonde is 2025 is a bit of a time capsule. Permeating everything in Legally Blonde is the bizarre duality of the girl power feminism of the late 90s/Early 2000s. We root for the girl to become a lawyer, but we’re fine calling other girls sluts and whores. We’re all for the sisterhood, but when someone from the other side of the country starts dating your ex a few months after you’ve broken up, they’re public enemy number one. Some of the choices made in the book of this show even reduce the feminism found in the original. In the movie, many of the moments of support and growth that would have been played between two or more women in the movie were replaced by moments between Elle and Emmett on stage, focused on Emmett cheerleading Elle. I think this is critical because so many lovely moments of that girl power feminism were removed from the movie version, like moments between Elle and Vivian, Elle by herself, and Elle and the completely-removed Professor Stromwell. These are the moments where the girl power worked the best in the movie, and I’m disappointed they were cut. The movie was by no means a perfect feminist film, but it feels like the stage version is somehow less feminist than the original.
In the stage version, Elle Woods’ story feels like a clunky prototype of a story of which we have more updated versions. I personally would have loved some revisionist history from this piece. I would have loved to seen the female empowerment re-written so it was just that: fun, candy coated pink girl power, full of the sisterhood and the fun, and taken out all of the needless snark.
This isn’t a criticism of VOS’ production itself, but I just wonder why we’re seeing this show in so many different places and stages. Legally Blonde is having a moment right now, I’m seeing it everywhere: community theatre productions, high schools, and in big equity houses.
I think it makes sense that with everything going on in the world, we’re leaning back on the lighter, fun shows and a good evening out. I’ll say this, though, mostly to myself: not every bite has to be a meal. Sometimes it’s enough to enjoy a bit of fun and sweetness without demanding more.
Overall, VOS has brought a sugar sweet production to the stage, gave it as much glitz and glam as it could handle and had so much fun doing so. The audience was having the very best time, clapping along and just enjoying every single moment – and I think that’s what this show is supposed to be. A fun time with tunes that will be stuck in your head for days.
I commend this whole (huge!) team on the accomplishment of bringing audiences this show in all it’s pink, rhinestone’d glory!
Legally Blonde runs until May 11th.
Disclaimer: I received free tickets to the show as a result of other volunteer work I do. No review was expected or requested.
