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 The Theatreguide.London Review

In March 2020 the covid-19 epidemic forced the closure of all British theatres. Some companies adapted by putting archive recordings of past productions online, others by streaming new shows, and various online archives preserve still more vintage productions. Even as things return to normal we continue to review the experience of watching live theatre onscreen.

Legally Blonde - The Musical-
Broadway 2008, MTV and YouTube     January 2025

The stage musical based on the 2001 film about the seemingly airheaded sorority girl who blossoms in law school ran for eighteen months on Broadway (which, in modern terms, constitutes a flop) in 2007-8 and for about twice that long in London 2010-2013, winning a Best Musical award [We reviewed it HERE].

The Broadway production was recorded by the youth-oriented television network MTV and is available on YouTube.

It's a peppy, poppy musical full of high spirits and energy, not particularly good songs and quite good dancing – a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours that will not linger in the memory.

The book by Heather Hach follows the film closely – Valley Girl Elle is dumped by her boyfriend as he goes off to Harvard Law School, so to win him back she studies like mad and manages to get in as well.

At Harvard she runs into culture clash and bullying but discovers a real talent for the law, helps win a big court case and dumps the boyfriend back in favour of another guy more worthy of her.

The songs by Laurence O'Keefe and Neil Benjamin are unmemorable, the lyrics particularly clunky, too often sounding like prose sentences shoehorned into unwelcoming melodies, though there is the occasional touch of wit – worried about Elle's travel to the foreign East Coast, her sorority sisters warn that 'all the girls have different noses.'

Where the generally upbeat songs do shine is as vehicles for director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell's dances and production numbers.

A stageful of sorority girls shaking their booties is pretty much guaranteed fun, and the musical opens with Elle's friends celebrating what seems the ultimate triumph, an expected marriage proposal.

Later Elle's delight at her first victory at Harvard leads to the show-stopping first act finale 'My Name Up On That List' while Act Two opens with a high-energy exercise video number.

'Bend And Snap' has Elle and the chorus teaching a friend the moves guaranteed to catch a man's eye (Later in the show the fact that one man proves immune to that move will play a plot role.), and there is even room, for reasons that seem to make sense at the time, for a Riverdance salute.

As Elle, Laura Bell Bundy sings nicely, acts as much as the script wants her to and keeps up with the chorus in the dance numbers (No faint praise there – Broadway dancers are the best in the world and it is rare for a star to be in their league.)

If Bundy has a limitation, it is that you can see her working at everything – she lacks the real star's ability to make it all seem effortless.

Orfeh has a couple of good numbers as a supportive friend and Christian Borle as the new boyfriend and Michael Rupert as an intimidating and slimy professor provide solid support.

The MTV recording of a live performance is smooth and professional, though in the increasing YouTube practice the show is repeatedly interrupted in mid-song or mid-speech by obtrusive ads.

There is nothing in Legally Blonde to strike fear in the hearts of Sondheim or Lloyd Webber. But it is fun.

Gerald Berkowitz