Review: LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL at The Muny

This week The Muny Stage pops with plenty of pink clad perky people in their production of LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL. The show is filled with laughs that are as silly and absurd as the alliteration in the previous sentence. The Delta Nu sorority sisters are caricatures of giddy girls that serve as a 'greek' chorus serving up puns to advance the plot. For this production, The Muny has assembled a chorus of attractive young people with exceptional dance flair to deliver on William Carlos Anglos energetic and fun choreography.

Kyla Stone flashes her Pepsodent smile with contagious sprit and charm in her characterization of Elle Woods. She uses clever comedic timing, partnering with Fergie L. Phillipe (Emmett), Patti Murin (Paulette), Haley Podschun (Brooke), Kelsey Anne Brown (Margot), Gabi Campo (Serena), and Khailah Johnson (Pilar) to deliver funny bits that elicited loads of out loud laughs from the audience. Haley Podschun and the ensemble provide a memorable dance routine as they jump rope their way through "Whipped into Shape." The entire cast fully commits to their performances using their strong voices and confident presence to fill The Muny stage with infectious energy. Unfortunately, as with many movies adapted to musicals, the score this cast of professionals must work with is seriously lacking.

The trend over the past decade-and-a-half is to turn popular movies into musicals and fill seats using the built-in audience from a popular film. Most of the movie-to-stage adaptations have scores that are poorly written and not memorable to support the book that delivers the carbon-copy plot of the movie on which the musical is based. That is exactly the case with LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL. In the entire show there is only a single song that is remotely memorable and that is the upbeat and grating "Omigod You Guys" that opens and closes the show. As with the most movie-to-musical adaptations, the lack of a noteworthy original score is the biggest problem with LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL.

This cast illustrates how exceptional talent can transcend poorly written material. The Muny's LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL is entertaining and funny thanks to the efforts of this hard-working cast of professional actors who do all they can to deliver their audience an enjoyable night in the theater.

The Muny's production of LEGALLY BLONDE THE MUSICAL runs through July 31st. Visit muny.org for more information. To purchase tickets, visit The Muny box office in Forest Park or metrotix.com.

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