This show has now closed, click here for a listing of current and future London shows
Previewed 5 December 2009, Opened 12 January 2010, Closed 7 April 2012 at the Savoy Theatre in London
sCollege sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn't take no for an answer. So when her boyfriend dumps her for someone serious, Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books, and heads for Harvard Law! Legally Blonde the Musical will take you from the sorority house to the Halls of Justice with London's brightest new heroine (and of course, her Chihuahua, Bruiser). The verdict? This much fun shouldn't be legal!
Musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, and book by Heather Hach, based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the MGM movie.
This production played eight-performances-a-week: Monday, Wednesday to Saturday evenings, and afternoon matinees on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday (up to 7 September 2010); and Monday to Saturday evenings, and afternoon matinees on Thursday and Saturday (from 8 September 2010).
The ORIGINAL cast featured Sheridan Smith as 'Elle Woods', Duncan James as 'Warner Huntington III' (up to Monday 14 June 2010), Richard Fleeshman as 'Warner Huntington III' (from Wednesday 16 June 2010), Alex Gaumond as 'Emmett Forest', Peter Davison as 'Professor Callahan', Jill Halfpenny as 'Paulette Buonufonte', Aoife Mulholland as 'Brooke Wyndham'/'Shandi', Caroline Keiff as 'Vivienne Kensington', Susan McFadden as 'Serena', Amy Lennox as 'Margot', Ibinabo Jack as 'Pilar', Chris Ellis-Stanton as 'Grandmaster Chad'/'Kyle Dewey', Emma Bateman, Dan Burton, Darren Carnall, Nadine Higgin, Suzie McAdam, Andy Mace, Matthew McKenna, Soreller Marsh, Sean Mulligan, Roxanne Palmer, Sergio Priftis, Tamara Wall, Ed White, Fabian Aloise, Francis Haugen, Jane McMurtrie, Lucy Miller, and Sherrie Pennington.
The SECOND cast from Monday 25 October 2010 to Saturday 8 October 2011 featured Sheridan Smith as 'Elle Woods' (up to Saturday 9 July 2011), Carley Stenson as 'Elle Woods' (from Monday 11 July 2011), Simon Thomas as 'Warner Huntington III', Alex Gaumond as 'Emmett Forrest' (up to Saturday 18 June 2011), Lee Mead as 'Emmett Forrest' (from Monday 20 June 2011), Peter Davison as 'Professor Callahan', Denise Van Outen as 'Paulette Buonufonte' up to Saturday 23 April 2011, Sorelle Marsh (u/s) as 'Paulette Buonufonte' on Monday 25 April 2011, and Natalie Casey as 'Paulette Buonufonte' from Tuesday 26 April 2011.
The THIRD cast from Monday 10 October 2011 to Saturday 7 April 2012 featured Carley Stenson as 'Elle Woods', Ben Freeman as 'Warner Huntington III', Stephen Ashfield as 'Emmett Forrest', Peter Davison as 'Professor Callahan', and Natalie Casey as 'Paulette Buonufonte'.
Directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with sets by David Rockwell, costumes Gregg Barnes, and lighting Kenneth Posner and Paul Miller.
Legally Blonde the Musical comes to London's West End following a successful 1½ year run at The Palace Theatre on Broadway in New York. The musical is based on the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde which starred Reese Witherspoon as 'Elle Woods'.
"Like the film but with diamante bells on, Jerry Mitchell's musical is a hymn to all things pink and girlie and drooled-over by teen princesses. The costumes are totally Barbie, the hair-dos perfectly My Little Pony, the sets impeccably Polly Pocket. And just like them, it's pure plastic - and it's fantastic... This is a light-as-candy-floss, 100-per-cent-calorie free show. However, read those glossy lips, because there's a message for girls: it is OK to be pretty and pink and blonde because guys who are worth it will see the pure gold beyond the highlights. But it is even more important to think positive, stand by your sisters and be yourself. I didn't come out singing - there's not a single distinctive or catchy tune - but I did come out grinning. This is the ultimate feel-blonde, feelpink show." The Mail on Sunday
"Sometimes, honestly, one wakes up the morning after a show wondering if it wasn't all some ghastly nightmare... It is, in short, a great big empty vessel of a show that makes a lot of noise and not much else, and would have been better entitled 'Irredeemably Bland'. I was aware that for the whole of the two hours and 25 minutes that it ran, I was sitting among a group of people with vacant smiles on faces that otherwise seemed entirely numbed. That was how I looked, too. It is the expression that registers when what one is seeing doesn't entirely sync with what is going on in one's brain. I am, for all that, giving this show three stars, for no other reason than I have a sense of humour and recognise that not everybody who goes to theatres these days is seeking intellectual sustenance or is necessarily even sober. I imagine Voltaire would have taken a similar view: I may not understand why people feel the need to produce such tosh, but, by Jove, I will defend to my dying breath their right to do so." The Sunday Telegraph
"Legally Blonde is synthetic as hell and relentlessly upbeat. It is also the most enjoyable new show on Broadway. Like Wicked and Hairspray, Legally Blonde encourages girls to think that, in the real world, a woman's intelligence and pluck will attract more attention than her physical attributes... Working with the cheerful, hard-beat music and lyrics of Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, director Jerry Mitchell keeps everything zooming along." The Financial Times on the original New York Broadway production
Legally Blonde the Musical in London at the Savoy Theatre previewed from 5 December 2009, opened on 12 January 2010, and closed on 7 April 2012