Saw Legally Blonde last night -- Sort of Review

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:09pm

I always thought that this was just a cute little show at first basically on the same level as The Wedding Singer. The MTV broadcast did nothing to convince me otherwise. I'm not saying it's a work of artistic merit but what it is is one heckuva a night at the theatre. MTV did not do the show justice. There's always something special about seeing clip after clip of a show and then finally seeing it live in the flesh. This feeling was even more elevated since I saw not clip after clip of Legally Blonde but ALL of Legally Blonde onstage. I won't ramble but I can tell you that the performers were all in top form. Laura even managed to hit the note at the end of So Much Better...at first. I think she screwed up but the way she handled it, it was impossible to tell (in a good way). She broke off and turned the last bit of the note into an Awwwwwww yeah!

The best part about seeing the show live was I was able to pick up on stuff that I missed in the broadcast such as the pink light in the window during Chip On My Shoulder when they enter Elle's room, the tight spotlight on Kyle's butt, and the gag with the violinist during Serious.

I got my program signed by Michael Rupert (long story short, he was glad to meet a Falsettos fan), Natalie Joy Johnson, I think Becky Gulsvig signed mine but I could be wrong, and Noah Weisberg's replacement. I even got pictures with Michael, Natalie, and Noah's Replacement (I don't know his name).

Just one question. Last night, before the scene change to the prison, when Enid stays behind to watch a little bit more of the "DVD", the audience heard Callahan offstage yelling, "ENID!!!!" Did they add that into the show or has it always been there?

[SpellingBeeFan4Ever]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:12pm

I read a review from San Francisco and the "ENID!" bit was in there. By the way, those are Tivo noises.

[dshnookie]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:15pm

Saw it back in August, and the line was in there. Why I remember this I don't know.

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:39pm

I'm always confused about that bit. Are they watching TiVo or a DVD? And I must not have heard it on the MTV broadcast.

By the way, I finally understand what everyone's talking about with Orfeh's performance. It was so much more toned down than it was on MTV.

Updated On: 1/6/08 at 07:39 PM

[strelimyn]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 7:54pm

I'm glad you had fun, Mattbrain!

Yeah, there were many things that weren't picked up well on the MTV broadcast, along with the TiVo sounds and Callahan yelling for Enid. During What You Want, you don't hear "This is what ..." when the ensemble sings "This is what Elle Woods inspires..." But anyway, enough of my rant.

Oh, Noah's replacement is Bryce Ryness.

[SpellingBeeFan4Ever]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 8:10pm

The tivo remote is different but the sounds are the same.

[bestfreakinshoes]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:49pm

Glad you had a good time! My friends and I went to go see LB in September and then we got to watch the MTV airing a month or so later. It was nice because I got to "see" the musical again and refresh my memory about parts or lines I had forgotten. Plus, it was nice to see the actors up close on the MTV airing.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:58pm

Sounds like you had a great time! Natalie Joy Johnson and Michael Rupert are so friendly at the stage door. Glad you got to see the show live!

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 9:29am

I thought the MTV Broadcast would be enough. I was wrong.

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 9:38am

I saw it Saturday afternoon and totally agree. There were so many little things that you just couldn't get during the aired performance. I loved watching the ensemble, because they're absolutely hilarious in the background. Paul Canaan is hysterical to watch, especially in the salon scenes. And I actually missed Elle and Emmett's kiss at the end, because I was watching Warner and Brooke get engaged. I'd heard about that and wanted to scene how they did it.

I've heard others say that they felt the cast was a little low-energy or holding back during the matinees, maybe saving it for the evening performances and I can see where they're coming from. But, at the same time, I've only scene the MTV version before this and I'm sure that they were giving 150% during that. Plus, they've said that the audience for the taping was out of control and they felt like rock stars. And, of course, the energy and adrenaline shoots through the roof when you have an awesome audience. It was still totally enjoyable and LBB hit the note pretty well during that performance, too. Sustaining it she went off a little, but nothing major. She did lose her shoe, again, though. It was pretty funny. It was during the scene when Paulette was quizzing her in her room. She ad-libbed a little thing, "Oh...I almost lost my shoe. Oh I did lose my shoe!" And that was it. I noticed that they've put some straps on her shoes for "So Much Better", so they don't fly off when she kicks, though. :)

I was bummed because my train was really late, so by the time I got to the theatre the show was well under way. I came in right as the Greek Chorus appears for the first time. So I missed a lot of fun stuff! I was hoping to get a better feel for what Haven is doing with Margot now, but I missed most of her reallly funny stuff, so I didn't really get to see that. She's good from what I can tell though. And with Bryce...he did well, but I'm not so crazy about his hair. Looked almost like a mullet sometimes on stage. Eeek...

Overall though...I was very happy to see it live. :) Great fun! Updated On: 1/7/08 at 09:38 AM

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 12:02pm

"During What You Want, you don't hear "This is what ..." when the ensemble sings 'This is what Elle Woods inspires...'"

Laura Bell did a little add-libbing after the captain says, 'Thank you!'..she says "Call Me!" and that kinda drowned the 'This is what' part.

[jonartdesigns]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 5:58pm

speaking of changes for the mtv version... when i heard leslie kritzer do "ireland" she said a 4 letter plural word that starts with a t (see kids i read the moderator warning) instead of "three boobs" is it always that way in the show or did leslie change it for her one performance?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 6:04pm

It's always the "T" word. Was changed for MTV. Like the line in "Blood in the Water" about getting high.


ETA: And the moderator warning does not prohibit one from typing "obscenities," it prohibits one from modifying the way they type it so that the filter that censors such words is bypassed and we have to read whatever "filthy" language someone posts.

Updated On: 1/7/08 at 06:04 PM

[memphreblues]

Posted: 1/7/08 at 6:05pm

jonartdesigns, from what I've heard, it was just changed for the MTV broadcast. I think one of the cast members blogged about the editing/censoring they had to do for MTV, but I can't remember who...

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 11:43am

"I was watching Warner and Brooke get engaged"

They what?

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 12:20pm

Yeah...it's something that Nikki and Richard decided to do during the curtain call and dance at the end. Actually if you start watching from after Elle proposes to Emmett, you'll see that they walk arm and arm together. When they're standing far over to stage left and it's not real big, but he kinda pulls out the ring box and she sticks her hand out and they hug and show the people around them. Richard talks about it in one of his blogs. He said that they came up with this whole little backstory of how Warner and Brooke ran across each other sometime after the trial and got together. And that he was pretty desparate and pretty much proposed to anybody at that point. :) It's pretty cute to hear the idea and you couldn't see it on the MTV airing...so I definitely watched for it the other day and sure enough, there it was. :)

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 12:29pm

I didn't catch that.

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 1/8/08 at 1:14pm

I think you actually have to be watching for it. Because otherwise you're probably watching Elle and Emmett's first kiss or any of the other action going on.

I wouldn't have known to look for it if I hadn't heard about it on these boards and Richard's blog. Updated On: 1/8/08 at 01:14 PM