Some thoughts on LEGALLY BLONDE, for a second time

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 6:40pm

Well, the balcony was half empty, the mezzanine got filled with everyone who moved down from the balcony, and the orchestra looked almost full. The audience, nearly entirely papered, was half dead through Act One, but picked up considerably during the second. I've never seen so many jokes fall flat, even cheesy ones which would normally get a ho-hum laugh.

As much of a detractor as I seem, I stand-by my original comments on the show. I maintain that it's one of the best movie-turned-musicals since Hairspray, thanks totally to Jerry Mitchell, whose energetic staging and choreography made me made just watching.

The O'Keefe/Benjamin score is entertaining, though repetative and too synthesized for my taste (though that's Chris Jahnke's problem). Heather Hach's book is servicable, though nothing special.

Perhaps part of the problem is that it's a bit top heavy, too many unnecessary songs (like "Positive") which could be easily cut.

One of my biggest complaints is the product placement. My joke, besides calling it Legally Bland, is calling it "Product Placement: The Musical." From Jet Blue to Red Bull to The Apprentice, I constantly wonder how much they either paid to get their names in the show, or were paid to have their names used.

I must give the cast credit for playing to the dead audience and not going on automatic pilot after the first few jokes failed to land. The ensemble is very strong and, as I said, I get tired just watching "Whipped into Shape." Yet again, that was the highlight, along with "Gay or European" (or whatever the hell it's called).

Christian Borle is great (as usual), Kate Shindle is incredible, and Michael Rupert & Richard H. Blake are deliciously slimy. If Mary Louise Wilson and Grey Gardens weren't in the running last season, Orfeh would have won the Tony for her Paulette(especially up against people like Charlotte d'Amboise and Rebecca Luker, usually reliable performers turning in lackluster performances). Haven Burton lacks the energy that Annaleigh Ashford has. Asmeret Ghebremichael is fine in her role.

And I couldn't take my eyes off Nikki Snelson and her washboard abs, and the incredibly curvaceous Tracy Jai Edwards, a strong replacement for Leslie Kritzer.

The BC/EFA plea was cute, yet you could tell it was very poorly rehearsed. I picked up the Carols for a Cure CD on the way out, can't wait to listen.
Updated On: 10/31/07 at 06:40 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 8:17pm

Bump

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 8:18pm

How can you tell it was "nearly entirely papered"? I mean, unless you did a survey, or people who get comps wear big shiny stickers or something...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 8:32pm

I'll put it this way...every person I happened to over hear mentioned (in some way, shape, or form) "getting free tickets to today's show."

Must have been a slow-selling performance.

[Grand Motel]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 9:39pm

I wasn't there today and while I'm of the mind that it's doing somewhat poorly at the box office, to be fair, isn't Halloween a heavily papered day at most shows? I'm also going to blame Hach's book a bit more for the blandness. Who do you think wrote those jokes? I will agree with you about Orfeh though and even go further and say she should have won with or without the competition.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 9:46pm

My instant reaction to seeign the theater so empty was "wow, I guess MTV didn't help."

Then my mother told me about one of her third grade students who mentioned watching it last week and how much she (a little girl from the Bronx who could never afford to get to the theater) loved it.

[Dirty_Rotten_Guy]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 9:55pm

Yea, LEGALLY BLONDE sent out some email with big discount seats for the show today, so even if a lot of people weren't getting them free, I'm sure most of them took advantage of the big discount.
Thats too bad there was such an unresponsive audience, but I'm glad the cast pulled thru anyways.

Oh yea, and I didnt see any mention of Laura Bell in your review, how was she today? I know you're not a huge fan.

Thanks for the review

[alex2155]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 10:04pm

How did people get free tickets for shows today? I somehow missed that memo
As for getting paid for the product placement...they are not. The products are just used as comedy or because the writers felt they fit in some way...they are not and did not ever get money from the companies for using them. The redbull was actually put in because Laura Bell always drinks redbull and got Christian Borle into it, so it was kind of a running joke between them, so Jerry just added it in cause he thought it was funny.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 10:05pm

I come from the philosophy of "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say it."

When I first saw the show, Laura's Elle was a complete ice queen who faded into the background, as she couldn't hold her own up against the other performers.

That said, she's loosened up, learned to almost hold her own, and she's not as cold as she once was. But she still couldn't make Elle a character which I cared about. Very breathy, heavily gasping in between verses of the "what about love" section of "What You Want" at Harvard (but that's because she danced, and fell - was that staged?). And that damn C# at the end of So Much Better...not as bad as I've heard it, not as good as I've heard it.

Either she had never done the BC/EFA plea before, or she's just not very good at improv. Though she did have one good quip while remembering what she had to say - "Hi, everyone. Happy Halloween. This year, I'm going as Reese Witherspoon!"


I just simply didn't enjoy her performance. Updated On: 10/31/07 at 10:05 PM

[myManCape]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 10:38pm

I don’t know about matinees but Holiday evening performances are always papered. Papering services, heavy discounts, cast members are offered tickets for family and friends, etc. Because lets face it, if your not going to the parade who wants to be in the city on Halloween night?

[theminutepast]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 10:54pm

I still don't understand "papering." Do people stand on streets and hand out tickets? Ridicule me, fine, but I really am clueless here!

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 11:00pm

Mary Poppins had the same problem today. A good deal of the orchestra, and most of the mezzanine and balcony were empty.

[alex2155]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 11:19pm

Halloween is definitely a hard holiday for shows. Harder than perhaps thanksgiving or christmas I would think. I walked by the Mary Poppins stage door this evening a little after 7 and I saw the kids from the show arriving in costumes and what looked like possibly bags of candy. I was glad to see they still found time to be kids and get some trick or treating and halloween fun in between shows today.

[myManCape]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 11:24pm

Except that Disney would never paper.

Theminutepast>
Papering is when the producers, for what ever reason (to generate hype of a new show, to fill seats on a day when there aren’t a lot of tickets sold like Halloween, or even if a show is selling decently but want to increase the word of mouth) give tickets away to fill the theatre. There are several papering companies that service New York. Play-by-play and TM Gold are two of the most prominent. In addition the producers might offer extra tickets to the cast and crew of the show for their family and friends as both a nice gesture and to increase the moral of a cast that would otherwise be playing to an empty house. Producers have virtually nothing to lose by papering a performance that has not sold well. An empty seat gets you nothing, giving away a free ticket could get you excellent word of mouth and a fan for life.

[carymetorent2]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 11:53pm

From what I hear, the cast was all given an amount of free tickets for their friends and family at today's matinee performance. I know the majority of cast members had friends and family there which is why it is surprising that the audience was so quiet (although most of them had probably seen the show before) and also explains the free tickets being whispered about.

[jake6970]

Posted: 10/31/07 at 11:57pm

Apparenly SA was also quite empty today.

[Calvin]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:01am

Who the heck was attending the show tonight?

As I was walking by the theatre, a limo pulled up, and there already was a line of shrieking girls flanking both sides of the pathway into the theatre. I got the hell away as fast as I possibly could.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 12:21am

I would think Thanksgiving or Christmas would be big days for show. It seems like a nice tradition to go see a Broadway show on Christmas night or something.

And I really don't see the excitement over Orfeh's performance. I've seen the show, but I just didn't feel like "oh yeah, she deserved it." I'm not disagreeing with you really, just want you to elaborate more, I guess. Thanks.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 7:09am

Orfeh is easily the strongest performer on the stage. She's got a massive amount of presence and her voice is stronger than ever.

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 7:29am

I was also at yesterday's matinee. I was in the orchestra, and it was pretty darn dead. I guess considering that the last time I saw it was at the MTV taping, I can see how there would be a massive difference, but this was my fourth time seeing it, and the lack of audience response yesterday was like nothing I had experienced the first two times I saw the show with regular audiences.

Except that Disney would never paper.

TARZAN was papered during previews.

[dramarama2]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 7:48am

...And every day after opening night...

[dramarama2]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 7:48am

Double Post

Updated On: 11/1/07 at 07:48 AM

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 7:54am

"That said, she's loosened up, learned to almost hold her own, and she's not as cold as she once was. But she still couldn't make Elle a character which I cared about. Very breathy, heavily gasping in between verses of the "what about love" section of "What You Want" at Harvard (but that's because she danced, and fell - was that staged?). And that damn C# at the end of So Much Better...not as bad as I've heard it, not as good as I've heard it."

Ok i LOVE you yankee but the remark about her been breathy is sjust stupid, this is not Grey Gardens she has just done a huge hyper active dance routine(yes i know you mentioned the dancing) so it would not matter who was in that role they would be gasping after to.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 8:05am

Totally agree 110 % with you on LEGALLY BLONDE !

J*

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/1/07 at 8:42am

Song - I wasn't criticizing her for gasping (lord knows, I would be, too!), I was just pointing it out. My problem was that, perhaps, it was a bit too noticable. It was like she was having an asthma attack. I didn't notice it on the TV broadcast, or when I first saw the show, which is why I mentioned it.