Legally Blonde is a Hoot
December 4, 2014
UMD Theater’s Legally Blonde: The Musical is simply a buffet of fun.
The show, which opened Thursday in the Marshall Performing Arts Center, is about the UCLA sorority girl who follows a man to Harvard Law School and is another demonstration of director Anne Aiko Bergeron’s impeccable eye for the entertaining and skill with performers.
In the lead role of Elle, Elise Benson not only sings and dances with panache, she rides her preposterous, wisely ditzy character with grace, balance and a dazzling smile.
Even if you don’t know the story, you recognize from the moment he enters that Pascal Pastrana’s character of Warner will ultimately reveal himself as shallow and ambitious.
Jayson Speters’ Emmett is in contrast immediately recognizable as good, decent and solid.
And Colleen Lafeber stands out in the role of Paulette, the beautician who sings a hilarious, rousing song about Ireland and later is featured in a delightful production number about the female attention-getting technique of “Bend and Snap.”
Bergeron makes maximum use of a cast of 32 (plus two adorable dogs) in fresh, beautifully polished production numbers that are just one delight after another.
One of the more impressive opens Act II. “Whipped Into Shape” has dancers jumping rope while singing and performing other feats of athleticism and aerobic fitness. Interestingly, the leader is played by Katelin DeLorenzo, whose character is about as far away as one could get from her just-previous role as the repressed and depressed Nora in UMD’s production of A Doll’s House.
When Bergeron puts up a show, not only the performers dazzle. In Legally Blonde: The Musical, Kathleen Martin’s costumes are an integral part of the story, as when Elle sits radiantly in pink amid fellow students in somber tones. Ashley Wereley’s set and Jim Eischen’s lighting are so tightly integrated into the action, the effect is more than the sum of its parts.
