#1
Posted: 12/8/08 at 12:00pm
So, okay. I don't think I've made it a secret that I really, REALLY like Legally Blonde. No, it's not saving any lives, but really, I thought it was a well put-together, FUN show, with a kickin' score and a badass talented cast. So, when the tour was rolling into Philly, it was a total duh to go and check it out, and let me just say? For someone who fell HARD for the original Broadway cast...the tour was FANTASTIC. If you have a chance to see it, absolutely go. Don't be put off because some of the sets were downsized or anything because it just works and it's a great production.
As far as the production values go, yeah, I kinda missed the big opening with the windows and everything, but the show just flowed. The cast had great chemistry as a group and within their relationships with each other. Everything just meshed and even the people who I didn't necessarily enjoy their character interpretation still gave 110% energy and worked well with the rest of the group, which was seriously lacking in the last few months of the Broadway production.
For me, the standout was Natalie Joy Johnson as Paulette. DAMN, woman! She was AMAZING. Honestly, for me, she was the best Paulette I've ever seen. And that's hard for me, because I LOVEEEE me some Orfeh. And I will admit, Orfeh probably sang it better, especially during "Bend and Snap". But Natalie's ACTING, and her comedic moments, and her transformation...I mean, she really did feel un-confident, and dowdy, and sort of pathetic at the beginning, and then when she does Bend and Snap, the confidence is so much more of a change! It's great. I just felt like she fit the role much better than Orfeh, and gave such a well-rounded performance. And for all the catty bitches complaining about her wearing the tight outfits? Natalie has thinner legs than me and I'm a size 4!!! She looked HOT!
Becky as Elle was also wonderful. I find her slightly less...charming? Than Laura Bell. But she's a true triple threat, and nails the singing, dancing, and acting of the role really perfectly. I really like how she makes Elle seem much more intelligent than it's written in the book for her to be. I felt like she really overcame a lot of the flaws in the book with her acting, and that was really great to see. She's also so funny. I just loved her. Great, great Elle. I wish she'd been bumped up on B'way rather than Bailey closing the show, but, I'm glad she's getting a chance to make the role her own here.
D.B. Bonds as Emmett...SWOOOOON. God, he was SO CUTE. He's WAY dorker than even Christian Borle's Emmett, but he's just so spot-on with her acting, and he has SUCH a great voice, and he's a cutie. Loved him.
Jeff McLean as Warner...sigh. I thought he was a painfully bad actor at times? But his voice is SO BEAUTIFUL and he was very pretty to look at. And I don't think Warner has THAT much acting to do, so he was fine. He and Becky had great chemistry though.
Megan Lewis as Vivienne...color me disappointed.
I went in wanting to love her because my friend saw her in Grey Gardens and thought she was great, but she just dropped the ball for me. For the first act, it felt more like she was making fun of Vivienne than playing her as a character? But she really improved in the second act, and DEFINITELY had the vocal chops for the LB Remix, there were just some questionable acting choices made in the first half of the show.
Ken Lands was also a fine Callahan. He has a VERY deep voice, it was really intimidating, lol, and I liked a lot of his comedic acting choices.
Coleen Sexton...WOW. I know NOTHING about her, really, and last night I came out a huge fan. She was SUCH a great Brooke, and sang it like nobody else really did before. She brought something totally new to the character, and she looked HOT in the costumes. Love, love love her!
Cortney Wolfson, Rhiannon Hansen, and Crystal Joy are FANTASTIC. All three of them! Rhiannon especially, I thought, had GREAT comedic timing. It was the first time since the original cast that I felt like the three girls worked well together and had a great chemistry TOGETHER. They were conscious of one another onstage and each of them had a distinct personality, and it was great. Crystal Joy has a GREAT voice, and brought that husky lower harmony that I missed so much when Asmeret took over, and Rhiannon had that goofy energy that Annaleigh had, and was just SO earnest and likeable onstage, and Cortney Wolfson was just fierce. I thought she sort of over-enunciated when she sang? But other than that, she was really great. And VERY pretty. I never really got the "hype" about UMich kids or anything, but Cortney was really good.
Ven Daniel...sigh. I was so biased towards him, but he was REALLY funny as Dewey. I thought his Kyle was a little corny and trying too hard to be funny? But he wasn't bad, and the audience LOVED him, so, I'm gonna say that it's just my bias toward Andy Karl that made me enjoy him less.
So, that's basically the cast, but I wanna give a special shoutout to Gretchen Burghart as Enid who was SO ADORABLE and so funny and Alex Ellis, who was FANTASTIC as Kate/Chutney. Oh my godddd, she was ridiculously funny. Loved her. It just goes to show that you can do A LOT with a supposedly "small part".
Other notes...I really liked the way they re-staged the Legally Blonde ballad. I prefer that, with Elle HEARING Emmett say he loves her, to the way it was done on Broadway. I liked seeing the chemistry between the cast and the energy, and I just thought it was SO well put together and well-cast and just...so much fun.
Also, sidenote? Woah, walking into the Academy of Music was SERIOUSLY trippy. It looked so much like The Palace! The orientation of the theatre and the design of the place, AND the way that the lobby was laid out. Really weird! Me and my friend were like ...did we go back in time? Is Legally Blonde still open? Where are we?
Anyway, if you get a chance, DEFINITELY go check it out, if only to see Natalie Joy Johnson TEAR it up as Paulette, but really, the whole cast is worth seeing. :) I cannot say enough good things.
Oh, and if the changes haven't been discussed on here:
- "Violence is never wise/Not the way to win back guys/Anyway she's twice my size/Who's got a plan B?" has become "Fighting is not delta nu/Who knows what the heck she'll do?/Some debutante, J. Crew kung fu/Who's got a plan B?" presumably because Megan Lewis isn't very tall.
- "I'm straight" "You were not yesterday" has become "I'm straight" - "You watch Project Runway." Which got a much bigger laugh, to my surprise.
- The Legally Blonde ballad is restaged so Elle and Emmett are singing to each other the entire time, with no door/wall/set piece between them.
- The opening is just the girls running around and stuff before launching into the song. A little underwhelming, but it's cute and it works.
- Between "Bend and Snap" and "There! Right There", there is a scene with Callahan where the various interns hand him his suit, coffee, newspaper, and brush his jacket with a lint thing. I dunno why they added it in/changed it? But it was cute.
I think that's mostly it? I'll stop making this even more unbearably long now.
As far as the production values go, yeah, I kinda missed the big opening with the windows and everything, but the show just flowed. The cast had great chemistry as a group and within their relationships with each other. Everything just meshed and even the people who I didn't necessarily enjoy their character interpretation still gave 110% energy and worked well with the rest of the group, which was seriously lacking in the last few months of the Broadway production.
For me, the standout was Natalie Joy Johnson as Paulette. DAMN, woman! She was AMAZING. Honestly, for me, she was the best Paulette I've ever seen. And that's hard for me, because I LOVEEEE me some Orfeh. And I will admit, Orfeh probably sang it better, especially during "Bend and Snap". But Natalie's ACTING, and her comedic moments, and her transformation...I mean, she really did feel un-confident, and dowdy, and sort of pathetic at the beginning, and then when she does Bend and Snap, the confidence is so much more of a change! It's great. I just felt like she fit the role much better than Orfeh, and gave such a well-rounded performance. And for all the catty bitches complaining about her wearing the tight outfits? Natalie has thinner legs than me and I'm a size 4!!! She looked HOT!
Becky as Elle was also wonderful. I find her slightly less...charming? Than Laura Bell. But she's a true triple threat, and nails the singing, dancing, and acting of the role really perfectly. I really like how she makes Elle seem much more intelligent than it's written in the book for her to be. I felt like she really overcame a lot of the flaws in the book with her acting, and that was really great to see. She's also so funny. I just loved her. Great, great Elle. I wish she'd been bumped up on B'way rather than Bailey closing the show, but, I'm glad she's getting a chance to make the role her own here.
D.B. Bonds as Emmett...SWOOOOON. God, he was SO CUTE. He's WAY dorker than even Christian Borle's Emmett, but he's just so spot-on with her acting, and he has SUCH a great voice, and he's a cutie. Loved him.
Jeff McLean as Warner...sigh. I thought he was a painfully bad actor at times? But his voice is SO BEAUTIFUL and he was very pretty to look at. And I don't think Warner has THAT much acting to do, so he was fine. He and Becky had great chemistry though.
Megan Lewis as Vivienne...color me disappointed.
I went in wanting to love her because my friend saw her in Grey Gardens and thought she was great, but she just dropped the ball for me. For the first act, it felt more like she was making fun of Vivienne than playing her as a character? But she really improved in the second act, and DEFINITELY had the vocal chops for the LB Remix, there were just some questionable acting choices made in the first half of the show. Ken Lands was also a fine Callahan. He has a VERY deep voice, it was really intimidating, lol, and I liked a lot of his comedic acting choices.
Coleen Sexton...WOW. I know NOTHING about her, really, and last night I came out a huge fan. She was SUCH a great Brooke, and sang it like nobody else really did before. She brought something totally new to the character, and she looked HOT in the costumes. Love, love love her!
Cortney Wolfson, Rhiannon Hansen, and Crystal Joy are FANTASTIC. All three of them! Rhiannon especially, I thought, had GREAT comedic timing. It was the first time since the original cast that I felt like the three girls worked well together and had a great chemistry TOGETHER. They were conscious of one another onstage and each of them had a distinct personality, and it was great. Crystal Joy has a GREAT voice, and brought that husky lower harmony that I missed so much when Asmeret took over, and Rhiannon had that goofy energy that Annaleigh had, and was just SO earnest and likeable onstage, and Cortney Wolfson was just fierce. I thought she sort of over-enunciated when she sang? But other than that, she was really great. And VERY pretty. I never really got the "hype" about UMich kids or anything, but Cortney was really good.
Ven Daniel...sigh. I was so biased towards him, but he was REALLY funny as Dewey. I thought his Kyle was a little corny and trying too hard to be funny? But he wasn't bad, and the audience LOVED him, so, I'm gonna say that it's just my bias toward Andy Karl that made me enjoy him less.
So, that's basically the cast, but I wanna give a special shoutout to Gretchen Burghart as Enid who was SO ADORABLE and so funny and Alex Ellis, who was FANTASTIC as Kate/Chutney. Oh my godddd, she was ridiculously funny. Loved her. It just goes to show that you can do A LOT with a supposedly "small part".
Other notes...I really liked the way they re-staged the Legally Blonde ballad. I prefer that, with Elle HEARING Emmett say he loves her, to the way it was done on Broadway. I liked seeing the chemistry between the cast and the energy, and I just thought it was SO well put together and well-cast and just...so much fun.
Also, sidenote? Woah, walking into the Academy of Music was SERIOUSLY trippy. It looked so much like The Palace! The orientation of the theatre and the design of the place, AND the way that the lobby was laid out. Really weird! Me and my friend were like ...did we go back in time? Is Legally Blonde still open? Where are we?
Anyway, if you get a chance, DEFINITELY go check it out, if only to see Natalie Joy Johnson TEAR it up as Paulette, but really, the whole cast is worth seeing. :) I cannot say enough good things.
Oh, and if the changes haven't been discussed on here:
- "Violence is never wise/Not the way to win back guys/Anyway she's twice my size/Who's got a plan B?" has become "Fighting is not delta nu/Who knows what the heck she'll do?/Some debutante, J. Crew kung fu/Who's got a plan B?" presumably because Megan Lewis isn't very tall.
- "I'm straight" "You were not yesterday" has become "I'm straight" - "You watch Project Runway." Which got a much bigger laugh, to my surprise.
- The Legally Blonde ballad is restaged so Elle and Emmett are singing to each other the entire time, with no door/wall/set piece between them.
- The opening is just the girls running around and stuff before launching into the song. A little underwhelming, but it's cute and it works.
- Between "Bend and Snap" and "There! Right There", there is a scene with Callahan where the various interns hand him his suit, coffee, newspaper, and brush his jacket with a lint thing. I dunno why they added it in/changed it? But it was cute.
I think that's mostly it? I'll stop making this even more unbearably long now.
"Get mad, then get over it." - Colin Powell
Updated On: 12/8/08 at 12:00 PM
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