Legally Blonde (musical) - Critical Response

Critical Response

The musical received mixed reviews but was praised for being a fun and upbeat production. Ben Brantley, reviewing the musical in The New York Times, wrote that the show was a "high-energy, empty-calories, and expensive-looking hymn to the glories of girlishness"; he praised Laura Bell Bundy saying, "she sings and dances flawlessly, and she delivers silly lines as if she meant them." Clive Barnes, in his New York Post review, wrote that he loved the "effervescent and radiant Bundy" as well as others in the cast, and that the "dances certainly have a slick snap, crackle, and pop". Elysa Gardner in the USA Today wrote that the musical was an "ingratiating trifle", and the "game cast ensure that the proceedings, however patronizing, aren't irritating." Jeremy McCarter in New York Magazine wrote that the musical unfortunately "doesn’t summon memories of Tracy Flick, the steely student-council campaigner that Reese Witherspoon played in Election before starring in Legally Blonde.

The West End production received mostly positive reviews. Benedict Nightingale in The Times wrote "Let's overlook some forgettable tunes and welcome dance that embraces everything from skipping with ropes to spoof Riverdance. Let's relish the support both of a fake-Greek chorus dressed as cheerleaders and of two cute, unnaturally obedient dogs. Let's agree that Legally Blonde is, well, fun". whilst Paul Taylor for The Independent wrote "Ridiculously enjoyable from start to finish."

The show also received some negative criticism. Tim Walker wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: "It is 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." Quentin Letts wrote for Daily Mail, "It is pink not just in the colour of many of the clothes and stage effects. It is pink to the core of its little, tiny soul ... The plot is pap, the musical unmemorable, the dancing often hefty except for one routine with skipping ropes."