April 30, 2007

Omigod, 'Legally Blonde' totally opens on Broadway

The musical "Legally Blonde" opened on Broadway last night with songs such as "Omigod You Guys," which are sure to please the targeted demographic and maybe even a few other people who don't happen to be teenage girls, according to the critics.

It stars Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods, the SoCal sorority pack leader who gets dumped by her Harvard Law-bound boyfriend and decides to win him back by proving she can be brainy and not just a blonde bimbo. It's choreographer-director Jerry Mitchell’s musical adaptation of the novel by Amanda Brown and the 2001 movie starring Reese Witherspoon.

"Legally Blonde" has an open-ended run at the Palace Theatre, located at 1564 Broadway, map. Regular tickets are priced from $40 to $110 with premium seats at $250.

The reviews:

Sun - "To quote from the show's intended demographic, its not gr8 but itll make you LOL. IMHO, obvs."

New York Times - "This high-energy, empty-calories and expensive-looking hymn to the glories of girlishness, based on the 2001 film of the same title, approximates the experience of eating a jumbo box of Gummi Bears in one sitting. This may be common fare for the show’s apparent target audience — female ’tweens and teenagers who still believe in Barbie."

Daily News - "But for all its pep, bright colors and adorable dogs, the "Blonde" that breezed into the Palace last night is rarely - as Elle would say - superfun. It's only sorta fun."

Variety - "Admittedly, any show that begins with a conversation between a sorority bubblehead and a yapping Chihuahua (Elle's scene-stealing pooch Bruiser) has this critic at curtain-up. But even without that stroke of shameless crowd-pleasing, Mitchell and composing team Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin get things off to a delirious start. So many musicals make the mistake of trudging through establishing book scenes and spreading the first-act numbers too thin. But 'Legally Blonde' fires them off bam-bam-bam, clocking high-speed narrative miles as it pumps the energy level with a series of songs breezing through multiple locations and quick costume changes."

Newark Star-Ledger - "Not to sound sexist, but the humorous saga of Malibu princess Elle Woods' adventures at Harvard Law School is likely to appeal more to women than otherwise. Despite a hottie ensemble, many husbands, dads and boyfriends probably will prefer hanging out at Langan's pub around the corner than watching this frilly affair unfold."

Newsday - "'Legally Blonde' knows what it wants to do and does it with sweetly-vulgar confidence and a 'Bye-Bye-Birdie-on-Daddy's-Credit-Card' style. The score, by the married team of Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe, has a solid Broadway-bubblegum sound and such endearingly overwrought lyrics as, "I've got tears coming out of my nose ... of course he will propose.""

Bloomberg - "The songs are, however, a problem. With words and music by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, they verge on melodiousness and cleverness without teetering into memorableness. (The pleasurable exception is one number, wherein much depends on a trial witness's sexual orientation, 'Gay or European?' and the result is more than lethally bland.)"

Post - "I loved - in moderation - the effervescent and radiant Bundy, I loved even more the crazy, measured charm of Borle as the smartest kid on the block, and Rupert's crisply supercilious law professor, while Orfeh proves adorable value as a beautician who doubts her beauty and a stylist needing more style"

Philadelphia Inquirer - “Some of Legally Blonde's best stuff is peculiar to the stage show, and it's at its best when it veers into nuttiness that a musical, not a movie comedy, allows. A dance with jump ropes is an unexpected knockout; a sudden swerve into a stylized Irish jig, a hoot.”
Associated Press - "So why, despite the expensive glitz and an aggressive, go-go attitude, does "Legally Blonde" only fitfully entertain? Most prominently because of a disappointing score."

amNewYork - "And in spite of its feel-good, have-fun, be-blonde messages, the show remains shallow and insincere."

Earlier: 'Legally Blonde' also available in XL yoga pants

April 30, 2007 06:52 AM in Broadway, Kids

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