Last night saw my daughter and I at Loughborough Town Hall with gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review and we settled down to watch ESNA start their 60th anniversary year with their joy-filled production of Legally Blonde. It’s yet another musical that I have heard about but didn’t know the plot so I was quite excited to discover another newbie for me.

The storyline follows the exploits of Elle Woods as she tries to win back her former boyfriend, Warner, after he dumped her to train as a lawyer at Harvard. Their relationship at college was based on him being the campus dreamboat and her being the pretty eye candy on his arm but she will “never be serious enough” to be a lawyer’s wife.

Elle is your (unfairly) stereotyped airhead – pretty, blonde, fashion-conscious and often lost in her Vogue and Cosmo inspired life. For love, she changes the direction of her life, pulls her socks up to get the grades needed to get into Harvard and off she goes to follow Warner to win him back.

James Bennet gives serious Gilderoy Lockhart vibes as the fickle Warner and he does it brilliantly. Within minutes of meeting him you want to dislike him intensely because of his vanity, his shallowness and his lack of awareness of how he has treated Elle. When I say “you want to dislike him” – you can’t actually because he is just so……meh. I literally groaned out loud when he proposed to Elle near the end of the show.

In contrast to the oh-so-sure Warner is the “chip on the shoulder” Emmett. Josh Hill’s performance as the softly spoken, unsure of himself young man easily makes the audience warm to him. The development of the friendship into romance between Emmett and Elle is a gentle journey that you want to see happen. Emmett stands back as Elle continues to try and turn things round between her and Warner despite his obvious falling for her and, as an audience member, I was willing the love to blossom from Elle so she could reciprocate Emmett’s feelings.

Elle is played beautifully Holly Wilson in her first ESNA show. There is a magnetism about Holly that steers your gaze towards her. Not only does she have a fab singing voice but she is well rounded in comedic timing, characterisation, stage presence and in the dance numbers as well as looking fabulous in her bunny outfit!

Throughout the show there are flashes of pure joy – Dewey (Cameron Stephenson) as your typical trailer trash redneck was hilarious, Daniel Robinson – both as the very topical Elon and then as Carlos – boyfriend of Nikos (Cameron Stephenson again – there is a trend here!) had me with tears of laughter in my eyes! Oh – and we can’t leave the moments of joy without mentioning Aaron Murray’s portrayal of Kyle! Well…..if you want to experience that joy – you will need to get a ticket but let me tell you – it is worth it 😀 (Hopefully this will make him smile in the way it is meant to and not like I am some sort of weird middle aged woman! 😀 )

There are also moments that leave you asking “How?” How DOES Harriet North, who plays Brooke Wyndham, manage to sing Whipped Into Shape whilst skipping and not missing a note or her rope and still not look out of breath at the end of it? How did the lovely Jack Cooling manage to become one of the UCLA Delta Nu Sorority Sisters? How did Cameron Stephenson and Aaron Murray (them again!) get imprisoned in a women’s correctional facility and how cute were Pablo (Bruiser Woods) and Rhodan (Rufus)???? Every time either of these two pooches came on stage there was an audible “awwwwing” coming from the audience. Exceptionally well done to these two cast members on their debuts!

This show has everything you could ask from a well performed musical and ESNA have done it again with the talent they have on stage. They have an abundance of good, strong singers especially Holly and Natasha Bryan who plays Elle’s new friend and confidante Paulette . The energy from every single member of the cast is contagious and you can really see how much they all enjoy being up on that stage. As I said near the beginning it is a joy filled production and I heartily recommend going to see it before it finishes its run on 12th April.

Photo credits to Mark Corns and Mike Hazeldine.