LEGALLY BLONDE — WITH HIGHLIGHTS

I’m going to hold off on my assessment for a little bit and give you some context.

I love a good bimbo and the character Elle Woods in the musical Legally Blonde is one of the best.

A Malibu princess who has a 4.0 grade average — in fashion merchandising — Elle is blonde, gorgeous, and relentlessly sunny. But her world falls apart when, instead of proposing, her boyfriend Warren breaks up with her. Warren is heading off to Harvard Law School, he has political ambitions, and as he explains, in the wife department, he’s shopping for “somebody classy and not too tacky.”

Devastated, Elle is determined to win Warren back by giving him what he wants, which, she reasons, is a woman “who wears black even when nobody’s died.” So she brushes up her SAT scores and gets into Harvard Law herself, so she can pursue him.

Those SAT scores? Here’s the thing: bimbos, the best bimbos, appear dumb, but they’re smart. Bimbos are clowns — wise ones who undermine the status quo, primarily gender norms, with the sheer force of their innocence.

This strategy of using frivolity to deliver social commentary puts bimbos like Elle Woods in the proud tradition of camp that flows from the fountainhead, Oscar Wilde. For Elle, shopping in a mall is like going to a temple — and there’s a feminist position within that. As Elle struggles to become a lawyer, she insists on continuing to wear her signature colour, bright pink, because why shouldn’t the dominant culture embrace who she is, in all her unrestrained femininity and sensual joy? The bedrock theme of Legally Blonde is that, in the face of sexism, solidarity is crucial.

This has gotten a bit heady, but I want to make one more quick point about style: Legally Blonde’s commitment to absurdity allows it to have one of the most associative — and hilarious — plot structures of any musical anywhere.

You never know what’s going to happen. Elle’s friend and mentor, the hairdresser Paulette Buonofuonte, confesses she has a thing for Irish guys, and all of a sudden, we’re in a Riverdance stream. When Elle finds herself trying a case late in the action, the outcome depends on determining a witness’s sexuality. This results in the fantastic song, “There! Right There!”, which includes the immortal lyrics (shared among several characters): “Look at his coiffed and crispy locks/ Look at his silk translucent socks/ There’s the eternal paradox/ Look what we’re seeing/ What are we seeing?/ Is he gay?/ (Of course he’s gay)/ Or European?”

Do me gently and don’t tell my mom! Throughout, the lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, who also wrote the excellent music, are classic.

All of this is to say: I’m invested in the material.

I’ve seen more consistent productions, but director Jayme Armstrong’s is still good: most of the essential pleasures are intact and there are some noteworthy highlights.

Playing Elle, Abby Woodhouse knows exactly what she’s doing, cashing in on the character’s eccentricities, endowing her with a hiccupy, little-girl way of sobbing, for instance, but also accessing Elle’s rock-solid integrity — all while singing and dancing with the precision of a pop star.

I loved Madeleine Suddaby’s freewheeling, wide-swinging commitment to Paulette. Suddaby is one of the best belters in the business and, even when she’s belting, she knows how to maintain her character’s vulnerability. If you were there on Thursday night, mine was one of the voices hollering in approval after Paulette’s Act 1 number “Ireland”. I believe my exact words were, “Yeah, baby!”

In Legally Blonde, Elle is followed around by a Greek chorus of sorority sisters from Malibu: “Don’t worry. We’re just in your head,” they reassure her. Madison Simms, Lexi Limin, and Madison Raybould, do an excellent and enthusiastic job of differentiating their characters. Raybould, who has a bit more to do, is givin’ ‘er.

As the cad Warner, Connor Hawkins shines particularly brightly in the Act 1 duet “Serious”, which Warner shares with Elle: wittily, Hawkins delivers his part with boy-band phrasing.

But I was less impressed by Nathaniel Johnson’s work as Emmett, Elle’s second love interest. Emmett is a good guy, but you still need to find the richness of the textures within that.

And I found both Lyndsey Britten’s choreography and Brian Ball’s set and costume designs hit-and-miss. The backdrop of Ball’s set is a sunset, which is a clever choice: it incorporates many shades of pink, which allows it to support the overall look of the production. But his set for the crucial trial scene is disappointingly rudimentary. (I assume he’s working within a limited budget; still, I can only comment on what I saw.) Some of his costumes, including all of Elle’s eye-popping pinks, and her Chanel-like blue jacket in Act 2, are yummy. But, in Act 1, those pure pinks are at odds with murkier hues, including plum and teal, and Ball’s distribution of pinks in the big finale looks thrown together.

As executed by this company’s committed ensemble, much of Britten’s choreography fires but, in a couple of the big numbers, when I wanted my jaw to drop, it stayed firmly attached to my face. More specificity and clarity, including in “There! Right There!”, would have helped a lot.

So, sometimes, there’s a bit of Stanley Park wind whistling through the holes in this production, but it still offers camp riches — and those riches allow you to see Legally Blonde for the wonderful creation it is.

LEGALLY BLONDE Music and Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach. Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture. Directed by Jayme Armstrong. A Theatre Under the Stars production in rep at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park until August 16. Tickets and information

PHOTO CREDIT: Abby Woodhouse leads the company of Legally Blonde (Costumes by Brian Ball. Photo by Emily Cooper)

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