"Legally Blonde, The Musical" cute with a captial "C"

HARTFORD - OhmyGod! "Legally Blonde The Musical" at the Bushnell Memorial Theater is like totally cute with a great big capital "C."

The musical, based on a novel by Amanda Johnson and also the movie starring Reese Witherspoon, takes well to the musical format, with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin and book by Heather Hach.

The plot centers on the Barbie blonde from Malibu, Elle Woods, played with pixy intelligence by Becky Gulsvig. Elle is in blissful love with her boyfriend Warner Huntington III (played by the handsome and fine-voiced Jeff McLean), and thinks he is going to ask her to marry him. Instead Warner dumps her in UCLA on his way to Harvard Law School, so she decides to get into the law school too, to win his heart back and prove to him she can be serious.

Like any good fairy tale, she gets in to the inconceivably competitive law school with nary a problem, just by cutting down on a few extracurricular beach parties and boning up on her LSAT studies. Fantasies really do make the world go round. Once in Harvard, where she is accepted for "cultural diversity" reasons, she who wears pink like the new black puts her own particular fashion-forward twist on higher education.

Along the way she brings her old sorority friends with her, as her own personal Greek chorus, and meets an earthy-crunchy nice lawyer guy (you can tell he’s nice, because he wears a corduroy jacket) Emmett Forrest, played with sweet sincerity by D.B. Brown. Forrest takes one look at Elle’s pink powder-puff dorm room and amusingly says "Hello Kitty." To help her save time he buys her Pert - the shampoo and conditioner in one.

She also has run-ins of various flavors with the lecherous and privileged Professor Callahan, played with superiority by Ken Land, as well as Warner’s new girlfriend, Vivienne Kensington, played by Megan Lewis, who asks Elle "All that pink you are wearing - is that even legal?"

Elle makes new friends too, with the hairdresser with a big heart, Paulette, played with down-to-earth energy by Natalie Joy Johnson. Paulette also supplies the subplot, with her budding romance with a hysterically funny UPS delivery man, played by Ven Daniel, who gives a whole new meaning to package delivery.

There are four dogs (two are understudies) who play two dogs in the show, one a bulldog named Rufus, and the other a tiny pooch named Bruiser, trained by Bill Berloni. Berloni got his start with show animals in the musical "Annie" and has been using only rescued dogs ever since. One of the canine actors, Frankie, who plays Bruiser, was found as a stray in Meriden.

As silly as the premise is, there are some interesting and true observations about how insane our collective world of appearances is. Success isn’t all about a dog-eat-dog world, as they sing in "Blood in the Water" where "The thrill of the kill is in the blood," but listening and helping others.

This show is a physical workout that includes lots and lots of energetic cheerleader-type dancing and singing, with well-rehearsed and delivered choreography by director Jerry Mitchell.

The show began a bit rushed and disjointed, with the chorus singing much too fast and not enunciating enough to be understood, while the orchestra ran over them. Once things settled down, however, and the leads came on stage, all improved.

The whole "gaydar" trial thing was crude and dated, and the Irish fantasy songs were kind of weird and could have been eliminated without being missed. This lawyers-in-love perky musical feels like an updated homage to the old big budget movie musicals like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, which puts it in pretty good company.

LEGALLY BLONDE, THE MUSICAL

3 Stars
Theater: The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
Location: Mortensen Hall, 166 Capitol Ave. Hartford
Production: Directed and choreography by Jerry Mitchell. Music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. Based upon the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture. Scenic design by David Rockwell. Costume design by Gregg Barnes. Lighting design by Ken Posner and Paul Miller. Sound design by Acme Sound Partners.
Running time: 2 and ½ hours, plus one 15-minute intermission
Show Times: Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m., Sunday at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. through Dec. 14.
Tickets: $25 - $75. Call 860-987-5900 or visit their website at www.bushnell.org

ACTOR...CHARACTER
Becky Gulsvig ... Elle Woods
Jeff McLean ... Warner Huntington III
Megan Lewis ... Vivienne Kensington
D.B. Bonds ... Emmett Forrest
Ken Land ... Professor Callahan
Natalie Joy Johnson ... Paulette