Even yours truly Ben Brantley kinda loved it, he even found his English equivalent of Kristin Chenoweth.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/london-theater-journal-legally-blonde-daring-to-be-dumb/#more-116759 The program for the London production of “Legally Blonde,” the 2007 Broadway musical based on the 2001 film, has a glossary of Americanisms for those unversed in the languages of Malibu and Ivy League New England. But British audience members don’t really need to know what the LSATs or sorority houses are, any more than a child needs to understand the medieval Arabic origins of “Aladdin” to attend a Christmas pantomime.
The London “Legally Blonde” is just plain silly — even sillier than it was in New York. And that, oddly enough, is its strength. Led by the irresistibly likable Sheridan Smith, who has become a full-fledged West End star in the part, and directed by Jerry Mitchell (who created the Broadway version as well), this “Blonde” dares to be dumb, glossing over the half-baked satire of American archetypes and transforming the entire show into an extended music-hall fairy tale.
I presumed I’d never have the occasion – and certainly not the inclination – to see “Legally Blonde” again, after having reviewed it three years ago in New York, where it left me feeling my pores had been clogged with some sugar substitute. But friends here kept telling me I should check out the London incarnation, and I had enjoyed Ms. Smith in the Menier Chocolate Factory’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors” a few years ago. So there I was on Friday night, me and a lot of little girls in sparkly clothes.
Maybe it was from having spent much of the earlier part of the week watching American tragedies (“All My Sons,” “Beyond the Horizon”), but “Legally Blonde” tasted vaguely refreshing, like a swig of soda pop after a night of straight Scotch. Like the West End version of “Hairspray,” this singing story of a California girl who follows her boyfriend to Harvard Law School is less slick than its Broadway incarnation, but it also feels less synthetic.
By conventional standards, Ms. Smith would seem to be miscast as Elle Woods, a part created on screen by Reese Witherspoon and on Broadway by Laura Bell Bundy. She is not fashion-magazine skinny and airbrushed-pretty but slightly plump and impish. Her dancing is just passable. And her accent is still closer to that of the sweetheart of skid row she played in “Little Shop” than that of a Valley Girl fraternity sweetheart.
But she has fabulous comic timing and an air of sincerity that makes you care. You root for her in the way you might root for Lucille Ball or Mary Tyler Moore in a sitcom. And she seems to be having such a darn good time up there. Don’t ask me to defend “Legally Blonde” as a good musical. I wouldn’t even try. But Ms. Smith has a gift that can’t be learned: When she smiles, you smile. And that infectiousness can go a long way in keeping audiences contented in their seats.
