Reviews
LEGALLY BLONDE Daemen University/MusicalFare Theatre
By
Nov 16, 2023, 22:28

Through December 10
LEGALLY BLONDE Daemen University/MusicalFare Theatre

Harvard Law School is one of those apex institutions, a goal for lots of driven young people who want to be lawyers in the tippy-top towers of the law, places which pay amazingly well or can change the world.
Just look at how many are on the U.S. Supreme Court.
It’s also a place impossible to get into and very hard to stay in.
Except for Woods, Elle.
She’s there in pink dazzle because the guy she’s fixated on is there on a quest to reach the towers of power.
She’s a UCLA sorority president whose interests don’t run to torts and criminal law but to fashion and partying.
Then, Woods (Gretchen Didio) decides she will chase intended husband Warner (Alex Anthony Garcia) to Cambridge and be a student there also.
Her admissions process bears little resemblance to what classmates and a relative went through to get into HLS.
This isn’t “The Paper Chase.”
“Legally Blonde” started as a novel, morphed into a very successful movie and morphed again to the well done musical on the MusicalFare stage.
It’s a throwback to those female empowerment movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood although the usual black and white didn’t offer the endless pink of Kari Drozd’s costumes for this production.
Initially, Elle doesn’t take law school seriously until she is told that without effort, she’s gone.
Since that comes from Emmett (Sean Ryan) who has survived the process at Harvard as a product of Boston-area poverty, she actually listens and starts to get serious.
Not only does she have the support of those Delta Nu mates, the pink law student also has the support of hairdresser Paulette (Nicole Cimato).
In turn Elle helps Paulette get up close and personal with Kyle the Delivery Guy (Bobby Cooke).
With Emmett’s help, Elle winds up as a student aide to Professor Callahan (Marc Sacco), who is defending fitness queen Brooks (Gabriella Jean McKinley), accused of whacking her husband.
Elle learns what the defendant was actually doing at the time of the murder but can’t use it in the trial because it would wreck the fitness guru’s career.
In a tricky and mildly homophobic questioning of a witness, she identifies the killer.
With this victory, she even peels Warner’s girlfriend from prep school away from him and the two women become friends.
Okay, anyway Elle becomes class valedictorian, gets Emmett and Warner slinks away, career dreams gone.
This is a funny and ridiculous show.
It’s likely to be a long time before a U.S. Supreme Court justice takes the bench in a pink robe.
Oh, well, it’s all pointed entertainment.
Director and choreographer Michael Oliver-Walline had good material and a good cast to work with on Chris Cavanagh’s minimalist set, with the show’s quick changes.
He clearly drilled his cast hard because the production numbers are so strong, “Blood in the Water,” “Chip on My Shoulder (Parts 1 & 2.), the crazy workout “Whipped into Shape” and “Legally Blonde.”
Didio is the heart of the show as Elle, with strong performances from Ryan, Cimato, Sacco and the sorority.
There aren’t many tickets left but if you can get some, see "Legally Blonde.”


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