Friday 22 June 2018

Theatre Trip: Legally Blonde

LEGALLY BLONDE

New Wimbledon Theatre
Date: 21st June (Thursday), 7:30pm
Seats: Upper Circle A 4-5

(With Jess!)

Understudies: Rebecca Stenhouse (Elle Woods), Alexandra Wright (Margot)

This week sees Legally Blonde in the New Wimbledon Theatre, and with Richard away in Iceland on a solo hiking trip, it's perfect timing for a girls night out! Jess and I met in Wimbledon after work, and pretty much headed straight to dinner (best burgers at Five Guys). Jess even stayed the night after the show, which was really cool. Haven't had a girls only sleepover in ages!

I have seen Legally Blonde before, just never live. There was an MTV broadcast of the original production which I've watched multiple times, but this show is definitely worth seeing live instead.

They had updated many of the references and lyrics to be not only more relevant, but less American. They also changed almost an entire song (Ireland), to be funnier given the relationship between England and Ireland. All the changes really worked and I found them great.

We had a few understudies for this show. Lucie Jones has been cast as Elle Woods (she represented Britain last year in Eurovision), but she was out. Instead, Rebecca Stenhouse played Elle Woods, and then Alexandra Wright played Margot, one of the main sorority sisters.

In terms of casting, some were really great. I think my favourites were Paulette (Rita Simons), along with Kyle the UPS guy. Paulette's voice was husky and rough, and so vibrant, she was absolutely show-stopping in her solo numbers. I was disappointed in Professor Callahan (Bill Ward) - I think he was the token 'famous' person in the cast, but he barely sang at all and didn't have the right 'sinister' vibe for my taste. Sad, because his song "Blood in the Water" is a great song. I also enjoyed the girl who played Enid (Nancy Hill), she was really fun to watch on stage. The guy who played Emmett (David Barrett) wasn't quite what I had hoped for in terms of looks, but he was great vocally.

Elle Woods (Rebecca Stenhouse, the understudy) was absolutely brilliant! She got every laugh line, sang beautifully and blasted the roof off when she needed to. A brilliant substitution for the part!

There was even a megamix on the end of the show, with most major number redone on stage, and they were so great. We got a lot of eye contact from Emmett because we were in the front row of the upper circle, and we were the only ones standing through the megamix. In fact, we danced and clapped our way through it, having a great old time!

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