I've done Legally Blonde and it was a big hit. Although that was 8 years ago and I'm not sure our community would be okay with the "Bend and Snap" anymore.
I didn't find the show overall to be vocally that challenging. Elle is challenging. It's an incredibly demanding role so make sure you have a dynamo that you are ready to showcase. She has a LOT of solos (and fast changes) and she almost never leaves the stage. The orchestra is also challenging. You really need two orchestras. A full musical theater band and a full rock/ pop band. We had to bring in quite a few pros because some of it was just too hard for our student musicians. And they'd handled Footloose the year before with no problem. So yeah, that's a challenge.
Other than Elle had a surprisingly strong vocalist as Vivienne which is good as she picks up some of the vocal heavy lifting in Act Two just as Elle's voice starts to give out (Literally I think they wrote it that way!). Other than that I had strong singers for Warren, Emmet, Paulette and the Sorority girl trio. But that was about it. Callahan and Brooke can practically sing/speak their solos if they have to (Brooke is more about finding an athletic dancer and Callahan is a harder acting role). And you do have some great show stealing acting roles that require almost no singing like Enid, Nikos and Kyle the UPS Guy. It sounds to me like you have more strong male vocalists than you probably need and barely enough women. That's pretty unusual! But really, if you don't have an Elle, I wouldn't do it. She carries the show.
The show is kind of costume heavy and set heavy but I will say that one of the nicest things about the show is that all the ensemble roles are a HOOT! There are a lot of great little gems for the ensemble to play. From Carlos to Aaron to Chutney, Dewey, the D.A., Elle's parents, there are just so many fun little ensemble parts scattered all through the show! And they are all very distinctive. It's one of the few shows I now where your ensemble really needs to be character actors! Have fun!
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John Monteverde
Drama Teacher
A3: The Academy of Arts & Academics
Springfield, OR
john.monteverde@springfield.k12.or.us------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 05-25-2022 12:58
From: Megen Gilman
Subject: Legally Blonde Diffculty
Hello Fellow Educators,
I am 90% sure we will do Legally blonde next year. We have around 5 really strong guys who can really sing. 5 more guys who can really act and fake it ( or are willing to get vocal lessons). We then have 6 girls who are really strong singers and about 6 who can sing but not like in choir. They are all super driven and really want to do Legally Blonde. We did Mamma Mia last year and Killed it. I am worried that the music is super difficult (like with the Harmonies). We will have a new Choir teacher and I dont want to kill her the first year, but am willing to raise more money to hire extra vocal supports. If oyu have done this show, what do you think about the difficulty. I was thinking if we have a small vocal ensamble that can carry, we can do it. If you have done the show what is you opinion about the music? How easy is it to combine some of the harmonies? Will that be needed?
Also how did you cast double cast all the parts?
Thanks for your feedback!
Megen
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Megen Gilman
Theatre Director
North High School
CO
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