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Mickey-Jo saw the LEGALLY BLONDE tour, you guys | details about the new production starring Amber Davies
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Mickey Jo Theatre
oh my God. Hey you guys, here's the deal. There is a brand new tour of the fan favorite musical Legally Blonde in the uk. It just started performances earlier this month at the Leicester Curve and I could not wait to go and see it and tell you all about it. If you're meeting me for the first time. My name is Mickey Jo. I'm obsessed with all things theatre and I'm a full time theatre critic and content creator here on social media. I share reviews on YouTube as well as podcast platforms. But today I am not bringing you a full official review of the new Legally Blonde tour I'm still going to tell you about. I'm going to describe what the production is like and share why I enjoyed it so much. As a fan who bought a ticket to go and see it, but we're not doing like a star rating and a full critical appraisal and all that. And a big part of that is because I went to go see this production. As a fan, I love this show. I discovered it while I was really falling in love with musical theater. I've done like amateur and concert versions of this show on a couple of occasions. Els all that and a side of fries and I was very optimistic about going to see this completely brand new production which I was hoping would make me happy as well as the rest of the fans. Because we have had, shall we say, a few different interpretations of Legally Blonde in the UK over the past couple of decades. If any of you watching or listening to this have already had the opportunity to see Legally Blonde on tour, share all of your thoughts and feelings in the comments section down below. In the meantime, here is what I can tell you about it. So the big picture thing that I want to say about this is I think fans are going to be really happy. I think it feels like classic, nostalgic Legally Blonde while still making a lot of its own own fresh, new independent choices and empowering its performers to do the same thing with the material. But it also really uplifts and celebrates the material in a way that allows you to just enjoy it with nostalgia. It's maybe my favorite Legally Blonde I've actually ever seen, and I saw the original production, albeit right at the very end of its West End run. I actually think now is an incredibly special time to be doing Legally Blonde. I will tell you why when we talk about the performances a little bit later on, but one thing I do need to point out is that it has been subtly brought up to date. It is set in a sort of vague contemporary time period. And I know people have a lot of strong feelings about Legally Blonde and whether or not it ought to be considered a period piece that retains its original early 2000s setting. And I think ultimately after more time passes, it will. I think a little ways down the line, productions of Legally Blonde will go back to being set in the early 2000s in the same way that, like being set in the 80s is such a huge part of the identity of the Wedding Singer as a musical, I think the early 2000s are potentially just still a little too recent to gain clarity and to gain their own sort of specificity as an era in the rear view mirror. As soon as we've driven a little further down the road, we'll be able to look back and be like, oh, that's what that decade was like. And then Legally Blonde will be able to attach itself to that kind of a nostalgia. But right now it's just not distinct enough. And I also don't think there are that many nuances within the material. Spoiler alert. There are nuances in Legally Blonde that necessitate an early 2000s setting. Occasionally I hear people saying like, well, attitudes have shifted, but the entire point of the show, I think, is to depict those that still haven't. Elle is a privileged, popular young blonde woman who excels in a certain social environment and isn't taken seriously in another. And I think both of those ideas continue to this day. Meanwhile, the show hasn't been dragged kicking and screaming into 2026. It has been just subtly brought up to date with some of the costuming choices and a couple of other details here and there. There are a few changes to lines and lyrics, as there have been with every iteration of Legally Blonde in case since it first made its premiere here. For example, the lyrics to Paulette's song Ireland were entirely rewritten for the original West End production. We still use the UK lyrics in this tour, but also a handful of more recent changes in the Harvard Variations. The character of Sandeep Parmadan's name is changed to something else, and his lyrics are slightly tweaked to make his English a little less broken. There's a line in the movie when El says to Warner that she lives near Aaron Spelling in the original Broadway production that was changed to Richard Simmons Is Our Neighbor. There have been various updates to that, and the version is Dwayne the Rock Johnson, which I think is a great choice because it's just a funny name. It's just a good punchline. There are so many new lyrics, I'm not going to be able to talk about every single example. But we have different lyrics in the song. Positive again, and not for the first time. It's a change to the bit that originally used to go, violence is never wise Anyway, she's twice my size. Because Vivian, in many other productions, including this one, is not twice Elle's size. So they just rewrite that a little bit. But also, and I don't know that I've noticed this before, the little mini reprise of oh my God, you guys, that happens after Sirius, when they're like, daughter of Delta Nu sweetheart. It's been 12 that had different lyrics as well from the section of I think he should be shot. And let me tell you what, that was all completely different, as was all of the introductory dialogue leading into the bend and snap. And you know, it works just as nicely. But if you have religiously watched the MTV Pro shot or listened to a particular cast recording, I don't want you to go and have a jarring experience just because it's different. It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different. Now there are occasional lines and lyrics that have been cut or changed because of bringing it more up to date. There are also a bunch of examples where, and we noticed this in the Region Park Open Air Theatre production, they have cut specific cultural references, of which there are a surprising number in Legally Blonde. Towards the end of the song what yout Want, when Elle is chastised for barging into the Harvard admissions meeting with, and I quote, singing and dancing and ethnic movement, it is now singing and dancing and Gen Z enthusiasm. Unmistakably, it's the 2020s. Speaking of that scene, it is now only actually a conversation between two professors rather than three. We also have some changes based on the fact that the cast size is a little smaller for the tour. Another example for this is that El's parents do not make a reappearance towards the end of the show in the Legally Blonde remix. So that entire section where they would normally come in and be like, honey, look, she's leading a parade. Take a picture that's just gone. And there are a couple of like, individual bars here and there, just places where we come in slightly earlier. There are a couple of like half verses that have been trimmed out. There are a decent number of dance breaks that are shortened or entirely cut. The whole Riverdance section in the Legally Blonde remix is a little bit whiplash inducing, if you're familiar with the original version. Because. Because we do cut sort of liberal chunks out of it. And it's not that I mind all of that necessarily, but I will say if we are going to make tweaks and cuts to the material, Dear God, can somebody please cut the Allstate joke, which has never once worked in the uk. I don't even know if this gets a laugh in the US at this point. But it's essentially. I think it makes reference to this commercial for All State. That used to be like, All State. You're in good hands. And so Paulette welcomes Elle into the salon for the first time when they meet and she says, you're with Paulette, so you're in good hands here. I'm like, all state but for hair. And then no one laughs. Not one person in the UK has ever laughed at this joke. And it's because we don't get the reference. And there are other things that you could change it to or just cut it entirely because the rhythm of it still feels like a punchline, but instead it's just this weird thing that hangs there. Meanwhile, there's another one that we don't get that also comes from the world of advertising, because we can tell that Vivian is saying something pointed to Elle when she says, you're not going to make it through the semester, let alone get Callaghan's internship. Even if you keep going and going and going. And it doesn't get much of a response, no one really knows what it means. It's a reference to the Duracell bunny because she's dressed as a Playboy bunny because she has been invited under false pretenses to a costume party. And it's all about what has enduring cultural recognition, because that reference doesn't really land. But when Emmett says, what's up, Doc? Especially if he pauses before Doc just to add it on at the end, that does get a laugh. Anyway, all I'm saying is, if we're going to make updates to the material, please, for the love of God and my sanity, someone cut those lines. Meanwhile, there was a change in one moment of vocal arrangements, because in the song so Much Better, Elle turns to Warner and sings, hey, remember when we spent spring break in the hot tub? Every night? From that point onwards in the song, there are ensemble harmonies and they would join in here by all singing every night. It's a nice sort of exciting vocal moment that doesn't happen in this production. And I can already hear the voices of people online being upset that that has been cut. Instead, it is sung as a sort of a solo echo by Vivian, somewhat incredulously, as she's like, every night, as if to be like, really, Warner? I actually like this change because I think it's a perhaps deliberate nod to the movie when El sees her name on the list, says, me, turns around to Warner and says, oh, Warner, remember when we spent those amazing four hours in the hot tub together? Or something to that effect, before pausing and saying, this is so much better than that, which gave us so much better, which then became a song. But Selma Blair, in the film, as Vivian then says to Warner, four hours. And so her having that little, like, really moment feels like the film again. So I like it, as does the way that they stage the meeting between Brooke Windham and her lawyers at the top of the second act. Because they do it on either side of a little sort of prison glass screen using the phones like they did in the movie, rather than having them just sitting on a bench with Brooke out in the prison yard after her workout. But that kind of leads us away from material changes and more about this production and the design and the direction and the visuals. Let's talk about what this actually looks like. So I mentioned that chat between Brooke and the legal team happening through the screen with the phones. There is a moment as they're all taking turns to talk to her. And, you know, they're all trying to convince her when it seems as though they can hear what she's saying, even if they're not the one holding the receiver, which feels a little bit dubious. But we get a nice new comedy moment afterwards when El is trying to win her over by singing the Delta News song. Who. Who is the girl with loyal friends and true. But she can't hear her. So Brooke is like, what? And she has to do it really loudly and also do big gestures of the dance that goes with it. That's a great new moment. And as someone who still loves the Legally Blonde movie, upon which all of this is based on, I like a nod to the film. I think that's a sweet thing to have in there. And there are small ways in which I feel like its sensibility is kind of brought into this production a little bit more. One of the things I most miss about the original film version, other than the fact that Elle's final courtroom monologue is objectively better, is the way in which she slowly wins the respect of her peers by doing nice things for them. The moment when she gets the awkward guy in her class a date with the girl he's trying to talk to by pretending that he jilted her is such a great moment. And it's a really brilliant example of her being kind hearted. And she kind of has that a little bit subtly with Enid in this production. Because after the moment at the party when she goes and stands next to Enid and says, I'm Gloria Steinem, researching for her feminist manifesto, I was a Playboy bunny. Thereafter. Elle and Enid are sort of allies from that point on. And the weird moment in the second act when Enid would, for no good reason, be like, I can't believe I'm saying this, but to Elle, that line now goes to Vivian and it makes a lot more sense. But we were meant to be talking about design and visuals, and I got distracted. I will say with the Brooke Wyndham of it all. They have kind of made her a YouTube fitness influencer, which easily makes sense. But the start of the second act frames her within this giant nostalgic TV screen. So I guess we're meant to infer that she was someone who made retro workout DVDs. They're watching an older one. And now she has transitioned to online media prior to getting arrested for her husband. Husband's murder. Which, you know, all makes sense. Now, let's talk about the set. Because very often, particularly with UK touring sets, they get so minimized and scaled down that what we end up with is quite disappointing. I think they have developed something which is very adaptable, but also very stylish and works for multiple different settings. We have these sort of curved paneled, dark pink walls and this really gorgeous tiled floor, which isn't just pink. They have learned that we need complementary colors in there. We've got a little bit of a D appeal going on. And it simultaneously suggests courtroom, but also classroom as well as department store. It kind of feels like you're shopping in a Jack Wills or a Ralph Lauren. There are a couple of different flats that lower down at the back of the stage, including the backdrop of a classroom and the entrance of a salon, as well as individual set pieces, like racks of clothes to create different stores. But they also, and I really like this, have a little mini sorority house that they put at the back of the stage at the beginning that gets swapped out for a miniature Harvard, which at one point the Greek Delta new girls sit atop and then climb their way over. I think it's a cute little way of reminding us where we are. And I think this production actually does more to allow Elle's journey to feel distinct between two different places. I think we very often can get through an entire production of Legally Blonde just thinking about character and not articulating an east west coast cultural divide. See, I told you there was nuance. They managed to make Callahan's classroom work without much seating, which I think they just about get away with. The only time I have an issue with it is towards the end of Chip on youn Shoulder, when the Delta Nugent Greek chorus girls are kind of just standing there like they're also participatory. And when they think, oh, my God, we just won the case. Elle got all up in Warner's face. I am starting to like this place. Their only Choice is to just kind of move forwards. Because they're not being revealed anew. Here's another design choice I really work. And one that makes it feel like Harvard. Rather than having Elle sat on a random bench. After fleeing the party dressed as a sad playboy bunny. She instead is perched on the front of a very Harvard esque window. Where Emmett comes and sits with her. That then gets turned around and becomes the window of her dormitory. And is thereafter used very well. Because she, like the crazy stalker that she is. Who followed her ex boyfriend across the country. Leans out of it madly to scream by Warner. Enjoy. Vale. Brilliant choice. And then when the Delta New Greek chorus girlies come forward and sing. Tis a gift to be simple. Tis a gift to be free. Or not even that, maybe like the Christmas one. They appear in the window like cutesy little carol singers. And you would be forgiven for missing all of that. Because for the duration of this scene. When we are in El's dorm And she is studying for her lessons. They have also brought Bruiser back on. And perhaps I've buried the lead here. Because there have been productions of Legally Blonde. With fake dogs and human dogs. We have two real dogs in this production who are absolute superstars. And Bruiser is on stage in a little bed for the entirety of this number. And at one point started tunefully howling along every time that people would sing. It's honestly adorable just watching him kind of roll around in this bed. And watching cast members delivering their lines. But also going over to him and playing with him. It gives Emmett a little bit of business. And immediately has us being like. Oh, look at Emmett getting on so well with her dog. Isn't that cute? But also, I need to tell you about something that happened at this performance. And this undoubtedly will never happen this brilliantly again. But as Emmett is playing with Bruiser. He has this moment where he sings to El. I don't know if you've noticed before, but each time Warner walks through the door. Your IQ goes down to 40, maybe less. And as he finishes that moment singing. Could it be the real thing in your way. Is the very guy you're trying to impress. At the exact moment when Elle would usually respond, yes, Bruiser barked twice, perfectly on the button of the phrase. The audience laughed hysterically. There's a big pause. And Amber Davis, like a genius, waited, pointed to the dog and went, yes. And honestly, so funny. Perfect moment. I don't think they're ever gonna be able to make that happen again. Meanwhile, this being Legally Blonde and us caring an awful lot about clothes. Let's talk about some costume choices. For the most part, I like pretty much everything. I think it's vibrant. I think it's colorful. Elle is, by and large the only person wearing a lot of pink. So she stands out. They do all have pink graduation robes. Which feels a little campy. For the setting that she has found herself in. Like, Harvard has entirely been taken over by Elle Woods. And, you know, I'm not against it. And ultimately, we're watching a musical. And again, I barely notice anything. Because Bruiser is in her arms. Wearing a little canine graduation cap. I mean, come on. Now, I do have some nitpicky thoughts. Because my name is Mickey Joe Theatre. And of course I do. And to my mind, if you're going to dress up in a full Playboy Bunny outfit. You also need the collar and bow tie. But that's neither here nor there. A bigger grievance I have, and I don't mind that when we go to Harvard for the first time. Every other student in the classroom Is wearing either a dark gray or black and white. And wearing. When El goes to the party. They're wearing very chic, like, tuxedo cocktail black tie attire. Like they're at Gussie Carnegie's party in the Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along. I actually like those choices. The problem that I have is in the whole Russell vs. Sullivan lesson. In the midst of Chip on youn Shoulder. When all the other Harvard students are inexplicably wearing outerwear. Like, I know it's implied to be perhaps January. But they're all indoors wearing trench coats like their Tyra Banks in the America's Next Top Model exposure. The only other note I have about costumes is I really like it in Take It Like a Man. When Elle and Emmett start playfully trying on a bunch of other things. And they put, like, a big fur coat on him and a couple of different hats. I think in this production, we really feel the ramping up of their intimacy. Let's keep talking about creative choices. But more so in the realms of direction and choreography.
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Mickey Jo Theatre
Did I talk too much? Can't I just let it go?
- [20:02]
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- [20:58]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Now. For the first, like, 20 minutes of this production, I was kind of quietly giggling to myself because I was enjoying so many of the little choices. It's teeny, tiny things, but like when they bring her these magazines after Warner has dumped her to have her then stand on a magazine stack at the beginning of what yout Want as she's singing what yout Want, Warner, what you want is me. Like it's a campaign speech is so, so good. Also, and I meant to say this in the last section, the date with Warner, when she's expecting that he'll propose. And he's normally dressed, dressed in this suit like an Armani model. And they go out to a nice restaurant. They both look much younger because of what she's wearing, but also because he's wearing, like, a UCLA letterman jacket. And their date takes place next to a claw machine. And at one point, he, with a single hand and without looking at it, operates the claw machine, which moves, picks up a pink bear, drops it in the slot, and then he picks it up and hands it to her. Like, science has come an awfully long way because I don't even know how that's possible. And all of those kind of details were pushing us in the right tonal direction at the start of the show. However, I do think with regards to the overall direction and the tone of the thing, that the initial scenes benefit from being a little more campy. And once she gets to Massachusetts and the world of Harvard, I think everything around her ought to be a little more sincere. And we can feel the kind of impact that El has reverberating from her and spreading to those around her. And, you know, she finds a kindred spirit spirit in Paulette. But when you have things like the courtroom becoming deeply campy and unserious because you have a very campy male judge and things like this, then I feel we distance ourselves a little bit from the fish out of water storyline that we would normally be playing here. I think the best Legally Blonde brings us campy Barbie fantasy, which she naively thinks is how the world works at the beginning. And then a deeply serious Harvard that she has to admit adjust to. That's what forces her to grow out of that naivety a little bit. And I think the word I'm looking for here is irony. I think we needed a little bit more of a sense of irony at the beginning. And there was occasionally what felt like a reliance on the material and just letting the score and the lyrics do the work. There were a couple of moments of staging, especially in oh, my God, you guys. When we had fewer Delta news on stage than in the original production. And Jerry Mitchell is the king of lyrics. Like giving the audience something to look at at every single split second. Like you have this needless sliding fireman's pole quick change thing happening. And people running across the stage and just chaos objectively. But there are a couple of times when it feels as though not enough is happening visually and they're just kind of standing there. I do like a lot of the choreography, though. I like most of the choreography. I really like in oh, my God, you guys. The daughter of Delta new section, which is very hip hop. It reminded me this is an incredibly niche where reference of the dance that the inappropriately young girls do in Donnie Darko for the dance competition. Because they're singing these sweet, sincere lyrics to Elle while doing these, like, hip hop moves. There are a lot of other moments of what I would describe as TikTok choreo. I actually love the so much better choreography. I like it a lot more with the Harvard students staying there. Rather than Elle finding herself basically alone on stage. I think this allows a song like Legally Blonde, the first time we hear it, to stand apart. Because then she feels that sense of isolation rather than feeling like everyone around her is actually cheering for her. And she finally fits in and she's finally succeeding. Speaking of Legally Blonde, yes. We are still doing the UK lyrics where there isn't a door. And so rather than singing please, won't you open the door, Emmett instead sings I should have told you before, which changes the moment completely because it makes it impossible for us to believe that Elle didn't necessarily hear his admission of love. Love. Therefore, she hears it, but decides to leave anyway. Before we get to all of that, though, she has to have an encounter with Callahan. And I love the way that they stage this. They have a little bit of a doorway problem at the end of the scene because they are witnessed through a flat piece of furniture. And she doesn't slap Callahan, he just, like, tries to kiss her and she wrestles against him. It's quite difficult to watch, actually. And Vivian and Warner stand together and both witnesses the entirety of it through frosted glass, through the closed door of the room. And they've tried to do tricky things before. Like in the movie, Vivian sees and only Vivian. And then she turns on Elle afterwards and she's like, you almost had me fooled. In the original Broadway production, Vivian sees all of it. Warner only sees a bit of it. And Vivian understands, but Warner doesn't. But I think this is really meaningful, actually, to have them both see the entire thing and have Vivian understand what happened. And Warner completely misinterpret it because Vivian has not been kind or thoughtful towards El at all up to this point. There's a moment during the proposal, at the start of so Much Better where previously she seemed a bit awkward or she's turned to look at El before accepting. And in this one, she doesn't think about El at all. She's just giddy. And so it's a real handbrake turn at this point. When she sees what happens to El, Warner is a jerk about it. And Vivian's like, no, no, shut up. Because she gets it as a woman. Woman. Meanwhile, and this is going to seem really frivolous after making that point, we have a little bit of a problem when it comes to big entrances. And I like El's first arrival at the top of the show. I also like her courtroom arrival. But we do the same thing twice in Legally Blonde remix. Because the supply closet exit that she goes off into and then returns from in her resplendent pink legal glory is the same entrance that she then uses for her courtroom arrival to one side rather than coming straight down the middle because. Because that's where the judges podium is. And so it kind of just feels like we're doing the same thing twice. I also think if you're not gonna have her be like thrown on or like jump through something for her, I'm what you want, Harvard, I'm the girl for you. Entrance in the middle of what you want, then she needs to come at it with like three times as much energy. If she's just walking her way on stage, she needs to scream at us. And there is something maybe a little bit awkward about Vivienne and Enid having clearly closely followed El and just sort of loitering at the back of the salon very visibly before saying, that's not what I see at the start of the Legally Blonde remix. But, you know, and if this hadn't come across already in this conversation, I am nothing if not a homosexual who longs for a big reveal. Unbelievably, I have even more to tell you about this production because we haven't spoken about performances yet. Let's
- [27:24]
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- [28:26]
Mickey Jo Theatre
Talk about the cast. So I saw, I believe, the full principal cast, Amber Davis playing the role of Elle. And what I loved is that she made the decision, it seems, to reinvent every single line reading. And I've seen and listened to Legally Blonde enough times, I can tell you the exact cadence of every one of these phrases. And she, she approached every word of this script and every lyric with fresh intention and characterization. And she was like, I'm gonna do this in a truly original and different way. And credit to her for finding a different route through the material that completely works and still feels like Elle Woods. I would say her characterization feels more so than anything else. Very earnest and very winsome. Her vocal delivery of the lines is in this sort of a slight whispered tone. Which isn't to say that she's quiet. It's just this sort of affected sincerity. She does charming very, very well on stage. She's easy to fall in love with. She was a pretty woman. She is in this also. She also dances, I think more than any other Elle I have seen before. The extent of choreography that she does. Very impressive. She really feels like that sorority it girl. And the singing choices, let me tell you, there are little licks and nothing necessarily that quantifies an entire riff or a run. But just like little licks here and there, little moments, little scoops, like little ways to traverse the score in a fresh and different way. That's gonna have you going oh, oh. Which I find very exciting. And credit to Karen Mav and George Crawford, who are also doing the same thing. The ending of George's chip on your shoulder, very exciting choices being made. Also, I need to say about Amber before I forget and move on. The stamina that she has has to be able to execute these sings alongside choreography. We don't talk enough about what a challenging role Elle woods is. And she has to do all of it looking perfect with a smile on her face like she's Mary Poppins, but the Mary Poppins of Malibu, California. And I thought about it and I realized, you know, after new money and the Great Gatsby, I'm sure a lot of these don't actually seem that challenging. Meanwhile, I enjoy George an awful lot as Emmett. I like him finally having this arrival as a leading man. But I also saw him him as a standout Ogie on the Waitress tour a couple of years ago. And so I know he can be brilliantly quirky and silly. And I would like to see a little bit more of that in his Emmet. I think, you know, Emmett isn't Warner and his material feels so serious, but there's a playfulness to him as well. We started to get it through the staging of Take It Like a Man in the second act, but I think there are more places where he could add in just like little individual choices because he's such an interesting actor. Karen Mav is serving vocals as Paulette, but she's so deeply lovable in the characterization as well. I don't like as much when they cast a Paulette who feels like they could have been in Elle Woods 15 years ago. I like it more when she and El find this fast friendship and instant connection more because they have this kind of a shared soul. They're both just these really big hearted people. And there was a huge cheer when Paulette had the River Dance moment with Kyle towards the end of the show. Even if the River Dance choreographer itself is wildly cut down, just like not an impressive sudden line and like rotation. It's like we're doing like little shuffles about like, go see Legally Blonde. Book your tickets. Don't go for the River Dance. Go for any other reason. And I'm not sure anyone has necessarily gone for the River Dance before. And you know, this was originally directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, who loves a big dance moment. And there was a lot of dance in the original production production. So it makes sense to a certain extent to pair it back. I enjoyed Annabelle Terry very much as Vivian. I like that she really lent into the mean girl energy of it all because we then had that moment when it shifted. I liked the way that she got retrieved in the party when Warner was basically flirting with Elle in the bunny costume and she got called back to come and deal with the situation and get her man, basically. Annabelle Terry has been a real rising star for a while now in the past couple shows that she's been in. Very exciting to watch her career. Kiana Bloomfield plays Enid and a couple of other roles in the production. She has a very fun track because she is also Courtney the shop assistant as well as Grandmaster Chad. Now, gender flipped in a slightly different key, but it's the stuff as Enid and they managed to curtail the usual lesbian joke, which I appreciated that. I think she plays really well and I like the way that she subtly starts standing up for El and kind of becomes an ally to her. Her alongside Emmett. I think that's really nice to see. Oh, we have to talk about Jocasta Almgill as Brooke Windham. Obviously her biggest moment is at the start of the second act. She also has a teeny, tiny ensemble track in the first, but the way that she executes the Olympic skill with which she performs whipped into shape at the top of the second act and then struts to the front of the stage and hits a pose at the end of that number in this sassy kind of 80s throwback prison slash gym wear outfit that she's got going on. Screw musical theater. She ought to be the queen of a small nation somewhere. I thought she was great. As were our main trio of Delta New Girls, Hannah Lowther, Remy Ferdinand and Rosanna Harris. Vocals from the three of them. Those first few lines of oh my God, you guys were great. Every vocal moment that Hannah Lowther got, who if you don't know, is also the alternate L. She was eating up every single moment. Everybody sounded great. And Daisy Twells plays both Kate during what yout Want as well as Chutney Wyndham giving you character choices completely different in each instance. I thought she was brilliant. I'd be very intrigued to go back and see the show again and to see Hannah and Daisy in the roles that they cover. And with the utmost praise to every other hard working member of this company. I think, and I mentioned this back at the start, the reason why Legally Blonde feels so satisfying right now and why there is this joy that radiates from the stage out into the auditorium is because it has come at Completely the perfect time. You may be wondering what I mean by this. Is it a political thing? Is it a social thing? No, no. My theory here is that this production has arrived at such a time as the actors who are age appropriate to play these roles now are the same ones who were growing up, who were coming of age, who were just beginning to do like youth musical theater training while Legally Blonde was coming out and blowing up the first time. This is is the Legally Blonde fan generation from the original Broadway pro shot from the original London production, who now get to do the show for themselves. After falling in love with this material and these characters who live and breathe these songs, you can feel that. You can feel the enthusiasm to sing these lines in the opening number even. You can feel how excited they are just to be doing Legally Blonde. As excited as a fever high school class who get told that it's going to be their spring musical. And you know, years will pass and there will be other productions of Legally Blonde, but this will always be the one that happened in that sweet spot, that moment when the generation who were gleeful kids who loved Legally Blonde the first time finally got to do it professionally for themselves. And I think that is gorgeous snaps for that. Snaps for everyone involved. And so that, I think, is everything I can tell you about the new tour of Legally Blonde. I will be back to go and see it. I don't know where I may have to follow this thing around the country because I just had so much fun. It put the biggest smile on my face. It is a joy listening to all of this material. There are so many bangers in this score and they are performed with such vibrant, palpable enthusiasm by this company. Amber Davis leads the whole thing with indefatigable professionalism as the perfect Elle Wood Woods. Thrilled for her and everybody else. Go and see them on tour. Go and have a great time. And if you already have, if you saw the tour in Leicester or my former local theatre, the Southampton Mayflower, let me and everybody else know what you thought of the production in the comments down below. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to my thoughts. I hope you enjoyed. If you want to hear more of them, subscribe here on YouTube, turn on notifications or follow me on podcast platforms. And as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a staging day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
- [36:52]
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Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fan Fellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson.
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Stephen (Fantasy Fan Fellas)
And I'm Stephen, your bookish Internet goofball. But you can call me the Smash Daddy.
- [37:04]
Hayden (Fantasy Fan Fellas)
And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy album epic Mistborn. But here's the catch. Steven here has not read Mistborn before.
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That's right.
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So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter.
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Hayden (Fantasy Fan Fellas)
And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Steven will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert. He'll be wrong.
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News flash. I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday, and you can find Fantasy Fan fellows wherever you get your podcasts.
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