Hull New Theatre – until 12th April 2025
Reviewed by Dawn Bennett
5*****
What an absolute treat we had at Hull New Theatre last night watching Hessle Theatre Company perform Legally Blonde the Musical. Hessle Theatre are an amateur theatre company in name only, every production of theirs that I have seen is 100% professional and this one was no exception.
Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the MGM movie of the same name, with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and the book by Heather Hatch. This production was directed by Martin Beaumont and stage manager was Kieran Danby.
Elle Woods (Tanya Sewell) is absolutely sure that her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (Aaron Bolton) is going to propose, but instead of doing that he breaks up with her because he needs someone more “serious” than her if he wants to become a Senator. He is going to Harvard Law School and when Elle realises that he is going there without her she decides to follow him there not realising how much work she is going to have to do. On the first day Elle is thrown out of Professor Callahan’s (Ian Appleyard) class with a little help from Vivienne Kensington (Georgia Wormald) for not being prepared for the course. Teaching assistant Emmett Forrest (James Galer) takes Elle under his wing and offers his guidance.
What follows is an hilarious plot. Does Elle manage to stay at Harvard and if so, does will she manage to qualify as a lawyer? And even with help from her friends, particularly Paulette Buonufonte (Emma Burgess), will she manage to get over Warner?
I hadn’t seen Legally Blonde the film or the musical before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but what I saw was over two hours of pure joy. The tunes are catchy I particularly loved Omigod You Guys, Whipped into Shape, and Gay or European. The signing, acting and dancing (choreographed by Elise Johnson) seemed to come easy to this triple threat cast, but you could see by the quality of the production how much work had been put into it.
It is very difficult to pick out any particular performance as they are all outstanding from the lead to the ensemble to the people behind the scenes and backstage, they all played the part to make this production jell together so well
The band, led by musical director Rebecca Barques, were outstanding. The set changes, some even done mind song, were seamless. And can I just mention the dogs (trained by Sally Hague from Leads in Action) Bruiser (Millie) Rufus (Ernie), I think they got the biggest Aww! of the night and to get them to perform on stage was brilliant and verry clever.
Legally Blonde the Musical is a fabulous feel-good production, I would very much recommend you try and get a ticket while you can, you certainly won’t be disappointed!
This is local theatre at its best!