Dazzling the audience

Theater department to perform ‘Legally Blonde’ with help of other fine arts programs

The+Legally+Blonde+cast+rehearses+after+school+on+Thursday%2C+Nov.+14.+

Alexandra Canizales

The “Legally Blonde” cast rehearses after school on Thursday, Nov. 14.

Theater will perform its major musical to date, “Legally Blonde,” a novel by Amanda Brown, from Friday, Nov. 15 to Monday, Nov. 18. The musical tells the story of sorority girl Elle Woods who enrolls in Harvard to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington while simultaneously trying to defy the stereotypes from others of her being just a “blonde girl.”

“We’ve all been working well together since the beginning of school,” lead director Alex Rodriguez said. “We didn’t audition till early September and didn’t start rehearsing until the end of September. Our big hope and goal is for our show to be great. All our groups have been working together pretty well, it’s pretty much heading that way.”

The musical requires several costume changes for the cast, pulleys to hoist certain props into the set and a turntable to change the setting into 27 individual locations. The varsity cheerleaders are expected to have a cameo with Farmerettes joining in for a couple of numbers. This year more band and orchestra students are in the pit to create the melody for the musical. 

“It’s a very vocal-heavy show,” junior Madelyn Bloom said. “I know in the years past we have been able to sit and wait for tech week to come along and then just sing the melody, but with this one, we have to have back-up vocals and we really need to know our parts.”

The theater cast has had to adjust to new tasks including learning how to jump rope, singing for an entire number and multitasking. The cast also learned to sync with the orchestra instead of following a recording.

“It’s a lot bigger [musical],” junior Tyler Ehrenberg said. “It’s ginormous. [There are] so many moving parts and it feels like it’s just taken a lot more time than others. The songs are great, [it’s] just a lot of fun to be singing in a choir room again with everybody. It’s an enjoyable process.”

Even with how hard the performance has been to prepare for, the theater cast has worked to ensure the performance will go smoothly throughout the days it’s performed. It is a team effort where everyone has to learn their parts and practice to perfect it, where even the minor characters are complex and play a huge role for the musical to go smoothly. 

“A lot of things are going to get thrown at you with the musical and so you kind of just have to wait for them to fall and take care of it together,” Rodriguez said. “We picked [this musical] because it works well for our kids and our directors. So far, they’ve been doing nothing but a good job of it.”