Happy Halloween everyone! My title is fitting for the day I suppose, but my post actually has little to do with the holiday. I know I don't write bad reviews often. I try to subscribe to that whole "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" mantra. But this was so bad I have to say something.
I saw Legally Blonde, the Broadway musical, the other night and they took one of my favorite movies of all time and completely destroyed it. Now, normally I try not to compare two things in different mediums because they are different mediums and therefore will be different. But change when it doesn't make it better or is completely unnecessary bothers me. And they changed way too much for no real reason other than so that it would be different from the movie (but yet it wasn't different enough to stand on its own).
The first and most important thing they changed/butchered was the main character. In the movie, Elle Woods is perky, ditzy and maybe a little materialistic, but she is a smart, strong, and most of all an extremely kind-hearted person. The Elle Woods in the play was perky, ditzy, materialistic, not very smart, not particularly nice and definitely not strong.
For example, the Elle in the play had to be coaxed into studying by Emmett. This is a retarded change for two reasons: 1. it was her resolve in the movie to prove herself that motivated her to study, which makes for a much stronger character. 2. Emmett is a much bigger part of her life in the play from the very beginning, which just doesn't really make sense for their love story.
They also changed Emmett's character a lot - who all of a sudden comes from the "other side of the tracks" and worked his way up, keeping two jobs and going to law school. This is a completely unnecessary change that doesn't add anything to the story at all. Another character they screwed up was Viviennne, who is a bitch in the beginning but slowly gets to see Elle's good qualities and realizes she herself can do better. I suppose, since they got rid of all of Elle's good qualities, they had to change Vivienne's character. But she just really had nothing redeeming about her, and when she was nice to Elle it was for no real reason other than that they got rid of the female professor/mentor character from the movie and had Vivienne serve both roles, which is just yet another example of them ridding the play of all strong female characters.
Sometimes they kept lines from the movie, but the actors - probably in an attempt to "make it their own" - would deliver the lines differently. And by differently I mean worse. Or sometimes they took out really good lines from the movie. Or kept them in but changed them so they weren't as good. It was very strange and annoying. One example of something that they changed that almost worked but then didn't because they ruined it was a line in the courthouse. When they're discussing if the pool boy is gay or not, someone says "or he could just be European." That was very funny. Had they left it off at that, it would've been one of the more memorable lines from the play (I don't think it's in the movie, though I suppose I could be wrong). The delivery of the line was even good. But no. They had to break out into an extremely pointless and actually rather offensive song about being "gay versus European." I thought it really helped perpetuate the American "we think we're better than everyone else because we're a bunch of tough cowboys" image, and I was actually quite upset by it.
Yet another thing that upset me: there was the "greek chorus" (greek meaning her sorority sisters in her imagination - how clever...) that followed Elle around breaking out into song. Now, I know it's a musical, but really? Really? It just didn't work. There were plenty of times that Elle could've just broken into song but instead they had to come in in all their annoying ditziness (which just made Elle's ditziness worse and worse). And then at one point other people could see them (during the "bend and snap" portion, which was also massacred), which is just inconsistent and stupid.
The music for the most part was fine. There were some catchy tunes. But frankly I was unimpressed by most of the singers. Paulette, played by Orfeh (what a name...), had one of the better voices. The other person I was impressed by was Vivienne (played by Kate Shindle), who hardly sang any solos until the very end when all of a sudden she belted out these crazy notes and was amazing. I was blown away and I was really upset that they didn't utilize her awesome voice more. Everyone else seemed to sing in that really nasily "I'm imitating Kristin Chenoweth because I don't actually have a very strong voice and she played a ditzy blonde too" voice that drives me crazy (I love Kristin Chenoweth. She has a very strong voice. But all these other nasily singers did not and it just sounded like they were trying to imitate her since she's popular so clearly, since they lack vocal skill, they can just get by sounding like someone successful).
So, overall, I hated the production. I am very disappointed that this show was made and has been as successful as it has been. Normally I would support any musical endeavor because I want the musical to be a successful genre again (although I suppose on Broadway it always has been and always will be). But this time I was dismayed by positive reactions from much of the audience while I was there. At least it didn't get a standing ovation (a few overly excited people stood, but it seems like every Broadway production I go to these days gets a standing ovation just because the audience is a little too easily impressed). But there were lots of cheers and I heard lots of people around me talking about how great it was. It really made me lose faith in humankind and their ability to think. At least Americans' ability to think. It was like throw on some glitzy hot girls dancing and smiling and everyone has a good time. Screw character development, screw plot, screw talent. Entertainment. It's all about mindless entertainment. And I like mindless entertainment as much as the next guy, but when they took something that was intelligent entertainment and dumbed it down like that... it's just too much for me. Anyway, before I rant any longer, I will bid you adieu. Tata dahlings.
I saw Legally Blonde, the Broadway musical, the other night and they took one of my favorite movies of all time and completely destroyed it. Now, normally I try not to compare two things in different mediums because they are different mediums and therefore will be different. But change when it doesn't make it better or is completely unnecessary bothers me. And they changed way too much for no real reason other than so that it would be different from the movie (but yet it wasn't different enough to stand on its own).The first and most important thing they changed/butchered was the main character. In the movie, Elle Woods is perky, ditzy and maybe a little materialistic, but she is a smart, strong, and most of all an extremely kind-hearted person. The Elle Woods in the play was perky, ditzy, materialistic, not very smart, not particularly nice and definitely not strong.
For example, the Elle in the play had to be coaxed into studying by Emmett. This is a retarded change for two reasons: 1. it was her resolve in the movie to prove herself that motivated her to study, which makes for a much stronger character. 2. Emmett is a much bigger part of her life in the play from the very beginning, which just doesn't really make sense for their love story.
They also changed Emmett's character a lot - who all of a sudden comes from the "other side of the tracks" and worked his way up, keeping two jobs and going to law school. This is a completely unnecessary change that doesn't add anything to the story at all. Another character they screwed up was Viviennne, who is a bitch in the beginning but slowly gets to see Elle's good qualities and realizes she herself can do better. I suppose, since they got rid of all of Elle's good qualities, they had to change Vivienne's character. But she just really had nothing redeeming about her, and when she was nice to Elle it was for no real reason other than that they got rid of the female professor/mentor character from the movie and had Vivienne serve both roles, which is just yet another example of them ridding the play of all strong female characters.
Sometimes they kept lines from the movie, but the actors - probably in an attempt to "make it their own" - would deliver the lines differently. And by differently I mean worse. Or sometimes they took out really good lines from the movie. Or kept them in but changed them so they weren't as good. It was very strange and annoying. One example of something that they changed that almost worked but then didn't because they ruined it was a line in the courthouse. When they're discussing if the pool boy is gay or not, someone says "or he could just be European." That was very funny. Had they left it off at that, it would've been one of the more memorable lines from the play (I don't think it's in the movie, though I suppose I could be wrong). The delivery of the line was even good. But no. They had to break out into an extremely pointless and actually rather offensive song about being "gay versus European." I thought it really helped perpetuate the American "we think we're better than everyone else because we're a bunch of tough cowboys" image, and I was actually quite upset by it.
Yet another thing that upset me: there was the "greek chorus" (greek meaning her sorority sisters in her imagination - how clever...) that followed Elle around breaking out into song. Now, I know it's a musical, but really? Really? It just didn't work. There were plenty of times that Elle could've just broken into song but instead they had to come in in all their annoying ditziness (which just made Elle's ditziness worse and worse). And then at one point other people could see them (during the "bend and snap" portion, which was also massacred), which is just inconsistent and stupid.
The music for the most part was fine. There were some catchy tunes. But frankly I was unimpressed by most of the singers. Paulette, played by Orfeh (what a name...), had one of the better voices. The other person I was impressed by was Vivienne (played by Kate Shindle), who hardly sang any solos until the very end when all of a sudden she belted out these crazy notes and was amazing. I was blown away and I was really upset that they didn't utilize her awesome voice more. Everyone else seemed to sing in that really nasily "I'm imitating Kristin Chenoweth because I don't actually have a very strong voice and she played a ditzy blonde too" voice that drives me crazy (I love Kristin Chenoweth. She has a very strong voice. But all these other nasily singers did not and it just sounded like they were trying to imitate her since she's popular so clearly, since they lack vocal skill, they can just get by sounding like someone successful).
So, overall, I hated the production. I am very disappointed that this show was made and has been as successful as it has been. Normally I would support any musical endeavor because I want the musical to be a successful genre again (although I suppose on Broadway it always has been and always will be). But this time I was dismayed by positive reactions from much of the audience while I was there. At least it didn't get a standing ovation (a few overly excited people stood, but it seems like every Broadway production I go to these days gets a standing ovation just because the audience is a little too easily impressed). But there were lots of cheers and I heard lots of people around me talking about how great it was. It really made me lose faith in humankind and their ability to think. At least Americans' ability to think. It was like throw on some glitzy hot girls dancing and smiling and everyone has a good time. Screw character development, screw plot, screw talent. Entertainment. It's all about mindless entertainment. And I like mindless entertainment as much as the next guy, but when they took something that was intelligent entertainment and dumbed it down like that... it's just too much for me. Anyway, before I rant any longer, I will bid you adieu. Tata dahlings.
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