✭✭✭✩✩

written by Laurence O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin,

directed by Jerry Mitchell

Mirvish Productions, Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto

July 8- August 8, 2010

Legally Blonde The Musical is fluffy, non-essential viewing suitably mostly to musical-fanatics or those desperate for two-and-a-half hours of vapid, moderately engaging entertainment.  The show is very well cast, smoothly directed and features a number of excellent performances.  In general, though, the creators would like the show to be both satirical and romantic, not realizing that the two cancel each other out.

Like the forgettable 2001 movie on which it is based, the musical has the improbable premise that Elle Woods (Becky Gulsvig), a blonde sorority bimbo, gets into Harvard Law School with the intention of winning back her ex-boyfriend Warner (Jeff McLean).  The fact that she has to be reminded to study once she gets there makes the set-up all the more ludicrous.  Luckily, a genuinely nice guy Emmett (D.B. Bonds) encourages her to put hard work above everything else.  Along the way, she not only realizes she has brains as well as hair, but wins a law case and the heart of the man who really loves her.

The music and lyrics of Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin are generally unmemorable except when they rise to occasion as in the ode of the hairdresser Paulette (Natalie Joy Johnson) to “Ireland” and in the cynical song “Blood in the Water” of law professor Callahan (Michael Rupert).  While the choreography never moves beyond dancercise, the book strays into outright fantasy when Elle’s sorority sisters pop up as a “Greek Chorus” or when Paulette’s love for the UPS man turns into a parody of Riverdance.  The result of the creators’ conflicting messages is that we don’t care strongly about any of the characters.  Gulsvig is perky and winning in Elle’s spoken parts, but she needs to control the piercing nasality of her voice as do her sorority sisters.  Bonds and Johnson use both fine singing and nuanced acting to make Emmett and Pauline the most realistic and likeable characters in the show.  Since it tries so hard to please, it’s surprising that a musical from 2007 should still trade in stereotypes of gays as prancing ninnies and lesbians as overweight man-haters.  The product placement of Elle Magazine and Red Bull give depressing new meaning to “commercial” theatre.  Nevertheless, if you must see a musical, have already seen Jersey Boys twice, don’t feel like driving to Stratford and want something infinitely more tasteful than Rock of Ages, Legally Blonde is, for the moment, your only option.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2010-07-09.

Photo: Becky Gulsvig and “Bruiser”.