Theatre News: Get Ready for the Legally Blonde Obession to Start!

GREAT news this week.

Legally Blonde are finally doing what A and I have wanted for AAAAges. Bringing out a cast recording.

Finally! Instead of the four songs I've had going around my laptop from the promotional CD I got at the launch, I can now start obessing over each nuanced line, each tricky-to-decipher lyric, each swell of orchestral brilliance. OMYGOD and so on...

I can dance home imagining my life is a musical once more. And I haven't done that since I finally cured myself of the odd Wicked! obession that struck after my Roman Holiday... ("Happy is what happens when all your dreams come true", etc.)

Shame we have to wait until 16 August. It'll be worth it.

Read the rest of this week's theatre news on the Visit London Blog

Arts Ahead 22-29 June from Londonist

The list of things I'm missing out on this week is running high:

• I said a firm no to Welcome To Thebes at the National earlier in the week
• I didn't go to Sister Act last night
• Or the londonist drinks
• I'm not being scared to death by Ghost Stories when it transfers on Friday
• I'm not seeing The Tempest as part of the Bridge Project on Monday
• Nor am I seeing Richard Fleeshman make his debut in Legally Blonde, also on Monday

And the reason?

It's wedding season. Between the Saturday just gone and the coming Friday, I'm attempting to conserve my energy for yet another stonkingly long day full of fun, excitement and ultimately knackering socialising. I've also spent time buying a hat. Cilla would be proud.

And on Monday, it's all about being a good daughter-in-law to-be with a trip to the Royal Albert Hall to see my future father-in-law sing. Hurrah.

If, unlike me, you're feeling adventurous this week, here's a list of what's happening in the coming week:

It's all kicking off in the art world this week. There's the BP Portrait Award opening on Thursday at the National Portrait Gallery, Wolfgang Tillmans' London-inspired art at the Serpentine Gallery from Saturday, and Fiona Banner's Duveens Commission will be unveiled at Tate Britain on Monday.

Read more from me on londonist

Image: Harry by Michael Gaskell. One of the shortlisted works for the BP Portrait Award 2010

Theatre Review: Legally Blonde @ the Savoy Theatre

Ohmigod, ohmigod, you guys! So, I finally saw it. 

Legally Blonde: ohmigod, it's so good.

From the start, when the sorority girls open the show with their first number, I was totally hooked. Lots has already been written about how funny, silly and sassy this new show is. Here's my tuppence-worth...

First up, I still haven't seen Hairspray, so I can't really comment on this choreography and direction (by the same Jerry Mitchell) being any better, or the same. I can say that I loved it.

Second, I think last night was perhaps the second-ish time in my life I've ever given a standing ovation. (I'm British. We don't really do it over here.) I might've been way back in row T (freebie marketing seats, thankyouverymuch) but when Sheridan Smith came to take her bow, I simply felt the overwhelming, non-British need to stand up. To show her how impressed I was with the work she'd put into my evening. 

I really think the main thing about the whole show is Sheridan Smith. 
She's the clever cog who stops Legally Blonde The Musical being too saccharine sweet. Her wit and, er, spunkiness (ick word, but it's the best I can do) shine through all the already shimmery, pink, shiny parts of the show, and somehow end up giving the whole musical a kind of interesting, deeper, classy gloss finish. In almost any other actresses' hands, I really think Legally Blonde just could've been too, too much.  

I don't know if it's just me, but having found out so much of SS's "backstory" (the idea that she's worked so hard for the part, that she acknowledged that she is: "honestly the laziest person and get a stitch walking to the car, so this is quite a big ask for me (from SOLT). It’s great to have something to work towards and challenge yourself", that, as Peter Davison points out in the reelkandi video of the Opening Gala, in need of regular reassurance that she is "good enough"), I found it almost impossible not to root for Elle / Sheridan. 

Quirky, cartoony, kooky as she is, SS captured my attention throughout. She's odd looking; too tomboyish even in a power LPD (little pink dress) and heels to ever look like a proper, beautiful, sexy, leading lady. Underneath all her acting it up as the uber-Malibu-blonde Elle, there's somehow still a whole heap of Smithy just millimeters underneath the surface. And yet, somehow, it all really works.

In fact, I'd like to see the show again soon, so I can watch more of the other stuff going on on stage, the choreography, the chorus members, the set, rather than getting caught up with watching SS and her beautiful but weird wigs. It's hard to take your eyes off her.

Aside from our heroine, how's the rest? Well, Duncan-James-from-Blue does just fine, his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. (I hope.) Peter Davison is OK as Professor Callahan (LK wanted someone nastier, but she's a Doctor Who fan, so...), and as I predicted, Jill Ha'pney is totally brilliant as Paulette.

It's funny how, when people have been in EastEnders, Chicago and the like (Byker Grove, anyone?), the snobbery quickly descends. But I think Jill Halfpenny is an actual properly brilliant musicals actress. Big voice, great mover, utterly believable, professional to a pin-prick, perfect in every way on stage. I hope she likes what she does, and sods the rest of them.

And the songs. The SONGS!  There's a hilarious song called "Gay or European" which nearly induced Mamma-Mia-style stare-at-the-floor-til-they-stop hysterical palpitations from yours truly. There's a few Wicked-style power-ballads, all messed up with really funny bitchiness from the self-proclaimed Greek Chorus. There's "Whipped Into Shape", which, as I may have mentioned elsewhere, features simultaneous skipping and singing. Skipping AND Singing! There's an early near-romantic near-duet ("Serious") which made me think of a Rogers-Hammerstein-Carousel duet (memories from the same theatre, perhaps), before it's all turned, hilariously, on its head. Callahan's "Blood in the Water" made me think of "Why Can't the English" from Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady. 

Put it this way, there's some class behind the songs, both the lyrics and the tunes. Well done Mr O'Keefe and Ms Benjamin. (Anyone know what else these two are working on??)

Anyway, I'll probably think of more things I love about it, but that'll do for now. I'm pleased to have a new obsession. I just need to work out exactly where it fits in the whole my Top 10 Stage Musicals blog post that I've been writing for about eight months. Terrible. I should perhaps get back to that.

Musical Excitement: Legally Blonde The Musical

Yeah, baby. On the first day back in the office (Mon) it was so nice to be offered some shiny, happy, pink, musical tickets... Legally Blonde, baby! Yay! It really made my day.

After attending the launch of Legally Blonde The Musical at Café de Paris no less, back in... wow, in October (really, that long ago?!), I have been quite excited about seeing this show.

There's skipping! And singing! (At the same time!) And Sheridan Smith! A weird thing called the Bend and Snap! And Sir Peter of Davison! And Jill Halfpenny! (Who, damnit, should really look into changing her name to something beginning with "S" for the purposes of this musical...)

And, it even got the WEWs a little bit giddy before Christmas. Remarkable.

Well, I'm excited. I haven't been to a big, new West End musical in aaages. Since Sister Act back in MAY??? (Sure, I saw Oliver-Exclamation-Mark in September, but that's hardly new, and while the sets were great, and it was all very polished and professional, it certainly wasn't terribly exciting...)

Roll on a fab, musical-filled 2010.