Song by song, ‘Legally Blonde’ builds a case for frivolous fun
There is, alas, no vaccine against the winter blahs.
But the exuberant Moonbox Productions staging of “Legally Blonde: The Musical” comes mighty close.
Directed by Katie Anne Clark and slated to run till New Year’s Eve, “Legally Blonde” is a stage adaptation of the 2001 movie that starred Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, a bubbly fashionista dismissed as an airhead who goes on to prove she is anything but.
“Legally Blonde” is ragged in spots. When the music stops and Heather Hach’s script has to carry the musical, it tends to falter.
This is a show that knows where its strengths lie, however, and there’s seldom a long wait between the infectiously high-spirited musical numbers (the score is by Lawrence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin), which means another chance for us to watch the cast’s full-throttle execution of Taavon Gamble’s galvanizing choreography. In other words, it is when “Legally Blonde” is in motion that it finds its true self — which is more or less the journey that Elle (Sarah Kelly) is on.
In the early going at Saturday’s matinee, Kelly did not register as vividly as Elle should. But she soon hit her stride and created an Elle to cheer for.
It’s not often that audiences root unreservedly for a character as wealthy as Elle. But she earns our sympathy when her snooty boyfriend, Warner Huntington III (played by Keith Robinson with spot-on hauteur), unceremoniously dumps her just when she thinks he is going to propose to her.
Elle’s friends had also been convinced a proposal was in the works, as they spell out in a hugely enjoyable opening number, “Omigod You Guys.” The number establishes “Legally Blonde’s” tone and tempo, performed by Melia Jost, Ekaterina A. Hicks-Magaña, Lisa Kate Joyce, Ts Burnham, Emily Cochrane, Eleni Kontzamanys, and Victoria Santiago, along with Kelly.
As Warner prepares to head off to Harvard Law School, which he views as a mere stop on the way to a Senate seat and then the White House, he callously explains to Elle that he needs a woman who is “Less of a Marilyn, more of a Jackie/Serious! Somebody classy and not too tacky.”
A heartbroken Elle, determined to win Warner back, lands a spot at Harvard Law, where she is underestimated by nearly everyone, including Warner’s snobbish new girlfriend, Vivienne (Kayla Shimizu).
But Elle gains two important allies: Emmett (a likeable Darius Williams), who is smitten with her; and Paulette (Yewande Odetoyinbo), the owner of a hair salon, who becomes Elle’s confidant.
Odetoyinbo is very funny as Paulette, swooning at the sight of Kyle (Ryan Norton), a UPS delivery man who strides into her salon in ultratight shorts, as if walking on a runway. When it comes to attracting the opposite sex, Elle knows a thing or two, and soon, in “Bend and Snap,” she is teaching Paulette a come-hither technique she can try on Kyle.
Though the Roberts Studio Theatre is not a huge space, dialogue and lyrics are projected via supertitles upstage. A spokesperson for Moonbox said the supertitles are part of its accessibility initiative, designed to “make sure everyone has access to our productions.”
For a feather-light show that is determined to give you a good time, “Legally Blonde” does have a genuinely hiss-able villain: the imperious Professor Callahan, portrayed by Will McGarrahan with his usual aplomb. Callahan enunciates his ruthless ethos in “Blood in the Water”; he delights in setting the law students against one another in a cutthroat competition as he dangles the possibility of a career-making internship.
Elle, Emmett, and Warner become part of Callahan’s legal team as he defends renowned fitness instructor Brooke (Emily Cochrane), who is accused of murdering her husband. (Cochrane was undermiked at times during Saturday’s performance.)
The five arched doorways of Sarabeth Spector’s set facilitate the cast’s dynamic movements, to the accompaniment of a band led by music director Mindy Cimini. William Andrew Young’s costumes are a feast of pink and blue, the sartorial equivalent of bubble gum.
No slight is intended to the talented cast when I say that the most memorable performance in “Legally Blonde” is delivered by Ricky, an impossibly cute Chihuahua who plays Elle’s dog, Bruiser.
Ricky, whose handler is Brian Michael Hoffman, barks on cue at a crucial moment in “Omigod You Guys,” later sticks the landing when he has to leap into Elle’s bag, and generally carries himself as if he was born for the spotlight. Give that pooch an Equity card!