#1
Posted: 11/20/08 at 12:27am
“Legally Blonde” has always been a confectioner’s dream of a production; sugar-sweet and vivacious, smart but never full of itself. It’s quite a balance, and almost all of it is nightly placed on the shoulders of the girl playing Elle Woods. In the recently closed Broadway production, Tony nominee Laura Bell Bundy and Bailey Hanks (my earlier review of the show with Hanks can be found here: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?boardid=1&boardname=bway&thread=975339#3650161 ) did a fantastic job of twirling the gigantic show on their respective little fingers, dancing and laughing and learning all while winking and smiling knowingly at the audience.
The touring version of the show seems to be a different case, however. Most of the cast appears to be tranquilized during the entire show—not just in need of the (much too obvious product placement) Red Bull littering the stage, but a combination of the Red Bull and crushed caffeine pills injected directly into their bloodstream. The entire show seems stalled at the gate, and Becky Gulsvig’s Elle fails to center the show: she seems to be going through the motions, and therefore there is no reason for us to follow her journey from “Dreams really do come true and you never have to compromise” to “I thank you one and all, the ones who thought I’d fall, who taught me how to fail and helped me to prevail.” Why should we care if she doesn’t?
I’ll quote my original review here to summarize the story: “If you didn’t know the story of Elle Woods from the movie or the sequel or the books or the MTV broadcast or the reality show, it is as follows: Blonde loves boy. Boy wants to be JFK so he breaks up with her. Girl says ‘Hell to the no!’ and follows boy to Harvard. Girl gets chip on shoulder and realizes (gasp!) that you should not define yourself by who you are with and how you look. Lots of dancing ensues.
”If you are looking for depth in characterization (aside from the lead), shocking twists or sex on a swinging platform look elsewhere. ‘Legally Blonde’ aims to be nothing more than a sweet, funny energetic ‘you go girl!’ production where you sit through number after number, eyes aching from ingesting all the pink around you, with a stupid grin on your face.”
I suppose that “aims to be” is the operative phrase here. Because, in its current condition, it isn’t.
Right now its a just-okay diversion that soars only slightly, is played well by only part of the cast and feels more forced than any comedy ever should. Moments of comedy that flew by before seem endless, and the cast, en masse, seems to have forgotten how to land a punchline.
And, ironically, the show really should be in the best shape of its life right now. While playing in the barn called The Palace Theater, “Legally Blonde” seemed just a tad too big for its own britches. The sets were huge, and comedy tends to play better in a smaller, more intimate atmosphere. Also, one may argue that in a smaller theater the show would still be playing today—but that is another discussion entirely.
For the tour the show has been scaled back a bit. It’s still one of the biggest productions currently on the road, but the sorority house at the beginning is gone, Elle’s dorm room is barely half of its former glory and Harvard is lacking some hanging windows, among other smaller cuts. In theory, these cuts should work in the show’s favor—giving the cast more opportunity to embrace physical comedy and interact with one another. Oops.
The missing sorority house leaves the sorority sisters of Delta Nu running around the stage waving a letter like chickens with their heads cut off. It’s not pretty and the new choreography is atrocious. At one point one of the girls falls over while mentioning Titanic and the audience wonders if it is part of the dancing or if she has just given up. In a show with the fantastic “Whipped Into Shape” and “What You Want” number, the new opening is an embarrassment.
Gulsvig is an exceptionally talented actress who wowed in the role of Amber in “Hairspray,” which makes me wonder exactly why she thought it would be a good idea to perform the first act of the show with no life or spunk. If Elle is anything, she’s pretty darn spunky. But alas, her songs are lifeless and her dancing so by-the-numbers you can almost see her counting off in her head instead of embracing the steps. And as for her spoken dialogue, Gulsvig speeds through it like she is late for a hair appointment, breezing past gags and zingers before you’ve even realized they’ve come and gone. When she screams that Red Bull gives her energy in the middle of “Chip on Your Shoulder” the audience wonders if the shout was a voiceover.
And its not just her!
For the entire first act you just want to stop the show, walk onstage and shake the performers. Megan Lewis, so magnificent in “Grey Gardens”, exhibits no magnetism as Vivienne. As the de facto villain for the first act, she just sleepwalks through her barbs, and if Gulsvig’s Elle were stronger, we’d chuckle because Elle could kick Vivienne’s head in with her stilettos in one fell swoop. Ken Land seems adrift as Professor Callahan, also skipping over jokes that stopped the show on Broadway.
There are, of course, many bright spots in the cast too. D.B. Bonds shines as Emmett, making him strong and funny. He finds new jokes in the book and lyrics, and is such a presence onstage you almost wonder just what Emmett sees in Elle, because we don’t see it. The lead sorority trio of Courtney Wolfson, Rhiannon Hansen and Crystal Joy all work really hard every time they step on stage, and you can tell, particularly during their showstopper “Bend and Snap.” Many of the ensemble members bring a lot of passion and fun to their bit parts, and others need to realize that eyes are still looking at them even when they are not the center of attention, so they should not look like they have just ingested Tylenol PM. Oh! And Coleen Sexton’s Brooke gives the show the shot in the arm it needs at the top of the second act, effortlessly drawing all eyes to her almost every moment she is onstage.
In fact, after the second act gets underway the show does get better. Not so much better, but better. Is it because Elle has less of a spotlight in the second act? Perhaps. But the cast seemed energized, the dance seemed snappier and the jokes finally (finally!) began to hit their marks. Lewis makes up for her mediocre first act performance by selling the hell out of her shining moment in “Legally Blonde Remix.” And, in the middle of act two, there is one absolutely beautiful moment where Gulsvig delivers a knockout vocal rendition of “Legally Blonde,” which makes you realize why producers hired her in the first place. If only she brought that to the rest of the show…
On a side note, “Legally Blonde” has been moved from Elle’s dormroom door to the courtroom, with Emmett and Elle singing to each other instead of to a door. It works much better (yes, so much better) this way, and really drives home the emotion of the moment in a way the Broadway production missed.
Sadly, moments like that are just too few and far between. The music remains wonderfully infectious, and the book is smart at times, but its shortcomings are highlighted and underlined by the cast’s misfiring delivery. I know that “Legally Blonde” can be a fantastic show because it has been before, and certainly can be again. But right now its sugar-coated candy has gone dreadfully stale, and that is a damn shame.
Rating (out of 5): **1/2
The touring version of the show seems to be a different case, however. Most of the cast appears to be tranquilized during the entire show—not just in need of the (much too obvious product placement) Red Bull littering the stage, but a combination of the Red Bull and crushed caffeine pills injected directly into their bloodstream. The entire show seems stalled at the gate, and Becky Gulsvig’s Elle fails to center the show: she seems to be going through the motions, and therefore there is no reason for us to follow her journey from “Dreams really do come true and you never have to compromise” to “I thank you one and all, the ones who thought I’d fall, who taught me how to fail and helped me to prevail.” Why should we care if she doesn’t?
I’ll quote my original review here to summarize the story: “If you didn’t know the story of Elle Woods from the movie or the sequel or the books or the MTV broadcast or the reality show, it is as follows: Blonde loves boy. Boy wants to be JFK so he breaks up with her. Girl says ‘Hell to the no!’ and follows boy to Harvard. Girl gets chip on shoulder and realizes (gasp!) that you should not define yourself by who you are with and how you look. Lots of dancing ensues.
”If you are looking for depth in characterization (aside from the lead), shocking twists or sex on a swinging platform look elsewhere. ‘Legally Blonde’ aims to be nothing more than a sweet, funny energetic ‘you go girl!’ production where you sit through number after number, eyes aching from ingesting all the pink around you, with a stupid grin on your face.”
I suppose that “aims to be” is the operative phrase here. Because, in its current condition, it isn’t.
Right now its a just-okay diversion that soars only slightly, is played well by only part of the cast and feels more forced than any comedy ever should. Moments of comedy that flew by before seem endless, and the cast, en masse, seems to have forgotten how to land a punchline.
And, ironically, the show really should be in the best shape of its life right now. While playing in the barn called The Palace Theater, “Legally Blonde” seemed just a tad too big for its own britches. The sets were huge, and comedy tends to play better in a smaller, more intimate atmosphere. Also, one may argue that in a smaller theater the show would still be playing today—but that is another discussion entirely.
For the tour the show has been scaled back a bit. It’s still one of the biggest productions currently on the road, but the sorority house at the beginning is gone, Elle’s dorm room is barely half of its former glory and Harvard is lacking some hanging windows, among other smaller cuts. In theory, these cuts should work in the show’s favor—giving the cast more opportunity to embrace physical comedy and interact with one another. Oops.
The missing sorority house leaves the sorority sisters of Delta Nu running around the stage waving a letter like chickens with their heads cut off. It’s not pretty and the new choreography is atrocious. At one point one of the girls falls over while mentioning Titanic and the audience wonders if it is part of the dancing or if she has just given up. In a show with the fantastic “Whipped Into Shape” and “What You Want” number, the new opening is an embarrassment.
Gulsvig is an exceptionally talented actress who wowed in the role of Amber in “Hairspray,” which makes me wonder exactly why she thought it would be a good idea to perform the first act of the show with no life or spunk. If Elle is anything, she’s pretty darn spunky. But alas, her songs are lifeless and her dancing so by-the-numbers you can almost see her counting off in her head instead of embracing the steps. And as for her spoken dialogue, Gulsvig speeds through it like she is late for a hair appointment, breezing past gags and zingers before you’ve even realized they’ve come and gone. When she screams that Red Bull gives her energy in the middle of “Chip on Your Shoulder” the audience wonders if the shout was a voiceover.
And its not just her!
For the entire first act you just want to stop the show, walk onstage and shake the performers. Megan Lewis, so magnificent in “Grey Gardens”, exhibits no magnetism as Vivienne. As the de facto villain for the first act, she just sleepwalks through her barbs, and if Gulsvig’s Elle were stronger, we’d chuckle because Elle could kick Vivienne’s head in with her stilettos in one fell swoop. Ken Land seems adrift as Professor Callahan, also skipping over jokes that stopped the show on Broadway.
There are, of course, many bright spots in the cast too. D.B. Bonds shines as Emmett, making him strong and funny. He finds new jokes in the book and lyrics, and is such a presence onstage you almost wonder just what Emmett sees in Elle, because we don’t see it. The lead sorority trio of Courtney Wolfson, Rhiannon Hansen and Crystal Joy all work really hard every time they step on stage, and you can tell, particularly during their showstopper “Bend and Snap.” Many of the ensemble members bring a lot of passion and fun to their bit parts, and others need to realize that eyes are still looking at them even when they are not the center of attention, so they should not look like they have just ingested Tylenol PM. Oh! And Coleen Sexton’s Brooke gives the show the shot in the arm it needs at the top of the second act, effortlessly drawing all eyes to her almost every moment she is onstage.
In fact, after the second act gets underway the show does get better. Not so much better, but better. Is it because Elle has less of a spotlight in the second act? Perhaps. But the cast seemed energized, the dance seemed snappier and the jokes finally (finally!) began to hit their marks. Lewis makes up for her mediocre first act performance by selling the hell out of her shining moment in “Legally Blonde Remix.” And, in the middle of act two, there is one absolutely beautiful moment where Gulsvig delivers a knockout vocal rendition of “Legally Blonde,” which makes you realize why producers hired her in the first place. If only she brought that to the rest of the show…
On a side note, “Legally Blonde” has been moved from Elle’s dormroom door to the courtroom, with Emmett and Elle singing to each other instead of to a door. It works much better (yes, so much better) this way, and really drives home the emotion of the moment in a way the Broadway production missed.
Sadly, moments like that are just too few and far between. The music remains wonderfully infectious, and the book is smart at times, but its shortcomings are highlighted and underlined by the cast’s misfiring delivery. I know that “Legally Blonde” can be a fantastic show because it has been before, and certainly can be again. But right now its sugar-coated candy has gone dreadfully stale, and that is a damn shame.
Rating (out of 5): **1/2
Updated On: 11/20/08 at 12:27 AM
