"Legally Blonde" CD Review- San Francisco Chronicle

[jimnysf]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 1:42am

LEGALLY BLONDE
Harvard Law School may have been easier to conquer than Broadway, but sorority superstar Elle Woods has been holding her own, so far, despite sniffy reviews and getting shut out at the Tony awards. Now she's got her own original cast recording as well, and it's just as delightful - and occasionally disappointing - as the show (adapted by Heather Hach from the popular movie and Amanda Brown's novel) that premiered at the Golden Gate Theatre in February. It's almost the same show. A few of Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin's songs apparently got cut on the way to New York, but the rest of director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell's fast-paced production seems intact. Laura Bell Bundy heads the same cast, as Elle, a perky, bright-voiced dynamo on her best numbers - such as the comic "Serious" (when getting dumped by pitch-perfect Richard H. Blake, left with Bundy, as stuffy Warner) and the sharply encapsulated plot mover "What You Want." She, and sweet-voiced Christian Borle (as her Mr. Right) suffer from being stuck with O'Keefe and Benjamin's more banal moment-of-decision songs in the second act. But by then the CD has more than made its case under James Sampliner's buoyant music direction, from the explosively joyous, wittily rhymed opener "Omigod You Guys" to the ingenious "There! Right There!" ("Is he gay or European?"). Nikki Snelson is outstanding on the workout-video tune "Whipped Into Shape," as are Orfeh on the "Riverdance" spoof "Ireland" and suave Michael Rupert on the lawyerly pep talk "Blood in the Water." And the Delta Nu Greek chorus is a treat. - Robert Hurwitt


LEGALLY BLONDE

ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST

GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS
$18.98



CD

[FutureAladdinOnB'Way]

Posted: 7/23/07 at 1:47am

What do they mean sniffy reviews? I remember looking at the review thread and majority of the reviews were positive with a few negatives and a few mixed...