Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Four stars
Things have changed a bit since the show first conquered Broadway a decade ago. In the current climate, Elle's refusal to be man-handled in this way looks like a timely and necessary act of everyday defiance, with a reference to The Apprentice included. Other than the incident described above, Williams' production is delivered by a bright and breathless ensemble in a manner that looks to Educating Rita and Pygmalion as much as it set the tone for Glee and Scream Queens.
Musically, O'Keefe and Benjamin's melodies may plunder tweenage pop bubblegum, but lyrically the songs are as knowing as Hoch's book based on Amanda Brown's original novel. The faux-Riverdance routine may show its age, but the sisterly Greek chorus leading the Bend and Snap routine and a perfume called Sub-Text make up for it. Lucie Jones breezes through this as the perennially perky Elle with a comic skill matched by Rita Simons as hard-boiled hair-dresser Paulette in a feelgood tale of blonde ambition and millennial feminism in a peroxide-powered world.
Four stars
There is a moment mid-way through the
second act of this UK touring revival of Laurence O'Keefe, Nell
Benjamin and Heather Hach's musical adaptation of the hit 2001 film
when the fun stops. Five minutes earlier, Anthony Williams' dazzling
pink-hued production was a riot of frothy song and dance routines
concerning the perils of Elle Woods, the cheer-leading sorority girl
who ditches her air-head image to train as a Harvard lawyer after her
preppy boyfriend dumps her. The next, just after plucky Elle saves
the day, she's warding off unwanted advances from the high-flying
legal eagle university professor who drafted her into his team of
interns to tackle the case of the celebrity fitness instructor and
her murdered husband.
Things have changed a bit since the show first conquered Broadway a decade ago. In the current climate, Elle's refusal to be man-handled in this way looks like a timely and necessary act of everyday defiance, with a reference to The Apprentice included. Other than the incident described above, Williams' production is delivered by a bright and breathless ensemble in a manner that looks to Educating Rita and Pygmalion as much as it set the tone for Glee and Scream Queens.
Musically, O'Keefe and Benjamin's melodies may plunder tweenage pop bubblegum, but lyrically the songs are as knowing as Hoch's book based on Amanda Brown's original novel. The faux-Riverdance routine may show its age, but the sisterly Greek chorus leading the Bend and Snap routine and a perfume called Sub-Text make up for it. Lucie Jones breezes through this as the perennially perky Elle with a comic skill matched by Rita Simons as hard-boiled hair-dresser Paulette in a feelgood tale of blonde ambition and millennial feminism in a peroxide-powered world.
The Herald, December 1st 2017
ends
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