Search - Laurence O'Keefe, Nell Benjamin, Laura Bell Bundy :: Legally Blonde (2007 Original Broadway Cast)

So Much Better Than Expected

AJK | Chicago, IL | 07/31/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 2007 musical version of the Reese Witherspoon film is energetic, light-hearted & fun.



While I enjoyed seeing the production (starring the terrific Laura Bell Bundy), the score seemed somewhat unmemorable - until I got the cd. Some of the songs work better on stage (ie. "Bend and Snap"), but after a few listens, several of the songs emerged as favorites:



Omigod You Guys

Ireland

So Much Better

Legally Blonde

Legally Blonde Remix



This is not meant to be a thought-provoking show - just one to smile."

Light entertainment

Steven Valenti | Cleveland, OH | 07/25/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The cast recording of "Legally Blonde" more or less matches the light and amiable tone of the Reese Witherspoon movie about a perky sorority girl's success at Harvard Law School. Nobody will mistake this for great art, but the score by Laurence O'Keefe ("Bat Boy," "La Cava") and Nell Benjamin gets the job done. What's questionable is whether the job needed to be done. The movie was enjoyable, but slight and predictable; the musical doesn't aspire to much more. Still, there are a few surprises in the score that keep it interesting. First, there are really no extractable "songs" here-- most of the numbers are structured as scenes, containing a mix of music and dialogue, often while juggling location changes and multiple characters. This works pretty well-- I could easily imagine a "Legally Blonde" musical that is just a slog of pop songs; there is some clever, even ambitious, writing here. Take for instance the best track, "What You Want," which details protagonist Elle Woods's entrance into Harvard. Skillfully paced over 8 minutes, the music is stylistically all over the place-- moving from pop to disco to reggae to marching band to power balladry, all while moving the action forward and managing to be funny. It's well done. And there are other numbers like it, and even a welcome foray into the bizarre by way of an unlikely homage to all things Irish ("Ireland"). All in all, this is an entertaining enough score, given the source material. Still: enough with stage adaptations of popular movies! The trend is getting old."

Much Better Than I Thought It Would Be...

rog4823 | Wooster, Ohio United States | 07/18/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I didn't have high expectations for this album, if I'm being completely honest. I thought the movie, while fun, was a little unoriginal, and add that to a relatively inexperienced cast and my expectations were low. The album jumped way past my expectations to one that has had a spot in my CD rotation for over a week now.



When I first listened to it, two shows came to mind, Wicked and The Wedding Singer. This soundtrack is a combination of those two shows, almost exactly, in my mind. The marketing and target demographics are similar to Wicked, so there should be no doubt there. It took a very similar path as The Wedding Singer, even hiring the same "bad guy" with Richard H. Blake playing that role well in both productions, although drastically overshadowed in both.



For the role of Elle Woods, they went to Wicked and took Laura Bell Bundy, who was the understudy to Kristin Chenoweth in the role of Glinda. Seeing as how it is easily believable that Glinda could have been a Delta Nu, they also dipped back into the Wicked pool and hired Annaleigh Ashford to play Margot. They played the Delta Nu sisters in throughout the show, making them, on the whole, basically an additional character in the cast.



The CD isn't perfect. Some of the songs are a little tedious. I could have done without Ireland (let alone a reprise of it), or Whipped Into Shape. However, the pluses far outweigh the negatives on this album. The very first number is an engaging, almost obnoxiously upbeat song entitled "Omigod You Guys" and it plays perfectly to set the tone. Christian Borle provides a nice steadying influence in the musical, making sure that it doesn't get too far out of hand and the chemistry between the two sounds excellent on songs like "Chip On Her Shoulder", "Take It Like A Man", and "Legally Blonde" which is a particularly emotional number in the production.



This show is more than just the light fluff of The Wedding Singer, without quite reaching the meaning or appeal of Wicked, but still entirely worth the buy and without a doubt worth listening to."