June 15, 2007

'Legally Blonde' review: Omigod, It’s So Pink

NewYorkology contributor Alexandra Farkas today weighs in with a review of "Legally Blonde," Broadway's latest screen-to-stage teen-pleaser. Farkas has directed Off-Off-Broadway productions of classic and contemporary plays, including at last fall's IGNITE Festival at the Ohio Theater in Soho. "Legally Blonde" plays the Palace Theatre, at 1564 Broadway, map. Regular tickets are priced from $40 to $110 with premium seats at $250. The review:

The movie version of "Legally Blonde" had a not-so-secret weapon – Reese Witherspoon. While absolutely adorable and endearing as the bimbo-turned-powerhouse Elle Woods, Witherspoon brought a knowing wink to the role that assured the audience that she, too, was in on the joke. Sadly, that knowing wink is absent from the new Broadway musical inspired by the film, yet it's still blowing audiences away at the Palace Theatre.

Maybe it’s unfair to damn a show for lacking a talent of Witherspoon’s complexity, because the audience is eating it up. The night I was there, the seats were packed with teenage girls, their parents, and middle-aged women with bemused dates. And from the show’s first and most infectious number, “Omigod You Guys,” to the appearance of Elle’s dog Bruiser (played by Chico the Chihuahua) to the final curtain, the nonstop energy on stage was met by wild applause.

It takes a strong audience to get in there and clap, because the show doesn’t stop for a breath anywhere in the first act. The charming and talented Laura Bell Bundy, charged with the unenviable task of standing in for Witherspoon, and her cast mates are working very hard up there, though it sometimes seems like their director (Jerry Mitchell, who also served as choreographer) doesn’t trust them or the show enough to exhale.

It isn’t that the movie was so much better, though it was. It’s that the movie’s bubble gum was balanced by a patient depth that allowed Elle to learn her lessons gradually. On Broadway, it’s all just really pink.

In remodeling the scene in the movie where Elle sends a video essay to the tweedy admissions office at Harvard Law, this production has her and all her friends flying to Cambridge to perform for them. When the stuffy old boys still aren’t convinced by the hit parade dance number with Elle as its drum major, the kids convince them with a group ballad about love. Really? Harvard lets her in for the sake of love? Doesn’t that sort of undercut the idea that her brainy pluck is her own salvation?

Inconsistencies and Red Bull-fueled hyperactivity aside, the performers in the show do an admirable job. In particular, Christian Borle (as Emmett) and Michael Rupert (as sleazy Professor Callahan) manage to bring some humanity to the stage. Nikki Snelson as the falsely accused Brooke Wyndham is an amazing force, and Orfeh as Elle’s new best friend/manicurist Paulette does an outstanding job, considering how miscast she is.

Tony Award voters shut out "Legally Blonde" last week, perhaps in acknowledgement that high-octane performances do not make a show prize-worthy, but there’s a reason houses are packed. The songs are infectious, the message is purely positive, and the show hits a nerve with an audience that isn’t being served by the likes of "Grey Gardens" and "LoveMusik." Sure, the subtlety of the story is gone and the dogs on stage are getting just as much attention as the humans, but for the Juicy Couture-clad girls in the audience, "Legally Blonde" is just right.

Earlier: 'Legally Blonde' makeovers at Bloomingdale's
Omigod, 'Legally Blonde' totally opens on Broadway
'Legally Blonde' also available in XL yoga pants

June 15, 2007 08:12 AM in Broadway, Kids

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