Legally Blonde will turn a quarter of a century old next year, but its popularity among young people has not faded in that time.
That makes Bearden’s upcoming production of the musical version of the film one of the most highly anticipated for the high school crowd.
“I think we are going to attract an audience that is more our age,” said senior Zane White, who plays Emmett.
Added senior Layla Griffey: “I think also we’ll get a more mature audience because usually some of the shows we’ve done in the past are really popular with kids.”
Many of Bearden’s recent musicals have been set in the mid-twentieth century, while Legally Blonde is a production set in the early 2000s.
“It’s really exciting to be able to do something so different from the past two years, especially with the style of singing,” said Griffey, who is playing the lead Elle Woods.
Co-director and chorus teacher Mr. Steven Brown said that the musical will allow Bearden students to work with new vocal techniques. With the constraint of pronouncing in a mid-century dialect, Mr. Brown anticipates the show allowing students to project in new fashion.
“Legally Blonde will still have the same height in our vowels, but it’s gonna be a lot more of a brighter, brassier sound,” Mr. Brown said.
Bearden theatre feels confident in tackling the challenges and changes this genre change presents, and looks forward to bringing the show to life.
“Something that’s kind of hard with doing a musical that was a movie is that it was so iconic and everybody already knows the character Elle Woods,” Griffey said. “So for us, the hard part is kind of putting our own spin on it.”
Added Mr. Brown: “The challenges of the show also compliment our cast perfectly. We have a deep bench of really talented students, and there is a deep bench of characters in requirement for this show.”
Mr. Brown highlights the size of the cast and looks forward to each student’s involvement.
“This is actually the first time, since I’ve been here at the very least, that every single person in the cast has a named role,” he said. “It’s really exciting because we have a cast of 39 people.”
Bearden’s production of Legally Blonde will open Nov. 13. Tickets will be available at beardentheatre.com as the shows approach.