STUDENT THEATRE REVIEW - Legally Blonde - Main Theatre, City College, Manchester.

This very pink and girlie musical from the pens of Laurence O'Keefe, Neil Benjamin, and Heather Hach, has found its way to Manchester's City College, and to the college's second year Musical Theatre students to put their spin on this OMG! favourite.

The hired set fit where it touched on their large stage, leaving huge gaps between set items, and this sadly meant that cast were easily seen walking in and out of the wings to take their positions behind the set for their entrances and exits. It also meant that some of the direction necessitated a slight last minute change to try and accommodate the set that wasn't quite what was expected. For example, find a way of masking the cast being seen behind the hairdresser's window.

This was a highly youthful, energetic and upbeat show from start to finish. The cast obviously enjoying every second of their stage time. This powerful energy was, however, at certain times throughout somewhat lacking focus. The characterisations were generally good, and worked well within the parameters of the style of the show; although if you will allow me to be slightly subjective, the characters who were more grounded and not displaying monodimensional over-the-top characterisations worked better for me; my personal favourite being the grounded and personable portrayal of Emmett Forrest by Owen Bradley. Closely followed by Gracie Root as Vivienne and Francesca Collinge as Paulette. Of course though, it is the comedy cameo roles which always garner the most laughs, and here, it was Quinn Whitehurst's UPS delivery man Kyle, and the overtly gay couple Carlos (Daniel Eccles0 and Nikos (Ryley Winterbottom) who stole their scenes with ease.

Isobel Hudson as Miss Legally Blonde herself, Elle Woods, gave a sterling performance as she took on her misguided-but-all-working-out-in-the-end journey for love, heading a strong, vibrant and animated cast, who all worked well together, and the chorus numbers showcased their triple-threat talents as singers and dancers too. 

Costuming was mostly good and appropriate, except for allowing Harvard law students to wear sexy mini skirts to their lectures. And even if this actually happens {I cannot imagine it does}, it still negates the stark contrast between their clothes / attitude to that of Elle's. Lighting was appropriate and on cue, but sound levels were sometimes too loud - but this is something that is increasing in regularity with my theatre visits these days.. sound engineers do not seem to know the meaning of quiet. We did have a couple of microphone issues too this afternoon, with at least one cast member being heard whispering backstage whilst the mic was still switched on! The band, under the direction of Celia Lee was at the rear of the stage, and all but Lee hidden behind the set. I could see her conducting / playing, and trying to bring the band members together, but most unfortunately their cumulative sound was at times, neither in tune nor time, and perhaps would have benefitted from a little more rehearsal. There were also times to when they overpowered the soloist on stage.(another sound issue).

The choreography for the show was shared between 4 different practitioners, which is perhaps why some of the dances worked much better than others. I did not understand why there were two male dancers in 'Whipped Into Shape', when they are inside a women's prison, and this dance could easily have been more exciting and varied. But, the worst dance - again a very subjective opinion obviously - was the Irish dance. Majority of the "Irish" dance steps given by the choreographer here were in fact Scottish (and yes, there is a HUGE difference); whilst once again, it did not inspire and did not do the "Riverdance Mickey-take" that it is so well-known for.  The highlight of the show was undoubtedly 'Gay Or European'. This worked excellently.

Directed by Charlie Young, she utilised this youthful cast to the maximum, finding individual strengths and abilities and capitalising on them. The story was told easily, and we enjoyed taking the journey with these disparate, needy, and contemporary Americans. Young managed to wring out pathos and realism in certain scenes, especially in the ups and downs of Elle's love life with both Emmett and Warner, and managed to hold together a high-energy and quite volatile company with seeming ease!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 28.6.23