Legally Blonde - Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

I didn't find Isaac's post as one doing any good, but they retracted it, and the outrage on this board and the calls about them not getting any more jobs over it is far louder than that for Quentin Letts, who has a far bigger platform and had belittled people countless times over.

Isaac should be dismissed.

This sounds like a live feed from the sound desk or even just someone's phone. They should have got them all into a studio to record a music bed (or even just stand still in a closed room). They sound out of breath and out of tune. They cant expect to be taken seriously if they put out material of this quality.

Agree entirely as it seems do the majority on this board.
But will the slew of 5 star reviews work their magic and open doors?

Elisabeth is now bullet proof, she has the nice problem that she can do what she wants. Those royalty checks ain’t going to stop anytime soon, as Six is such a monster hit, think there is now or soon going to be 6 producti9ns.

Is this the snowflake generation they cannot take any criticism and if you are in the performing arts you'll get knockbacks from auditions and shows closing look at the Cinderella fiasco. If a lot of performers of this ilk start venting out then they will soon end up being labelled "trouble" by the big producers who have a talented pool to choose from.

Look at these wannabes on the X Factor who have been told they are great by family and friends usually some girl about 16 trying to hold a note like Mariah or Whitney but then get told by Simon and co they aren't as good as they were told and cannot accept it.

Considering that the last eight pages of this thread consist of middle aged people going into hysterics over Isaac's (distasteful) tweet I think we should really re-consider who the snowflakes are tbh

It's a two way street

I refrained from reading any Legally Blonde reviews until I actually went to see the show 31/5 (so a few days ago now). This was mainly so that I didn't feel my opinion unintentionally twisted before I had the ability to carve my own thoughts on what I was watching. After all, many of these reviewers are also ticket providers who want a good word for the show that they're trying to advertise for audiences to book for. In fact, I don't think I ever actually checked out this thread since the casting was announced back in March, but today I sat down and caught up with everyone's thoughts on the show. Thankfully (or maybe not), I found that my potentially controversial opinion on the show, after seeing it, were shared with the majority of the people on this thread.

In terms of the casting, I was pretty impressed with the vast majority of it. Stand out performances were definitely Lauren (who I already had high hopes for in her role as Brooke, as I'd seen her in the Six tour on many occasions, so I knew that she had amazing vocals), also Michael (Emmett), and Nadine (Paulette) but other than that, it was nothing discernable.

In all honesty, that's the operative word for this entire show: 48 hours on, and all of my memories of the show wash into one 2½ hour long zone-out. That might sound really harsh, and the show was *good*, but sadly not much better. I'd listened to the cast recordings (mainly the live London one) for many a year before this trip, and in all fairness to the show I'm probably slating it in a snarky manner because I don't believe that this production did it any sort of justice. Maybe I did go in with slightly too-high expectations; the last shows that I've seen were Heathers, Waitress, Six, Hamilton (in the last 3 months), and after them all I've left the theatre instantly yearning to return, but with LB I never got that feeling. Would I see it again? Maybe, if I could be tempted with free tickets. I did utilise the OAT's half price concession under 18 ticket deal, which meant that my £40 seat was only £20, and that was probably one of the main reasons that I went to see the show, as I knew that I'd regret it (considering its short OAC run) if I didn't. Would I rush back to the theatre to rewatch it tommrow? Probably not.

I would never have left during the interval because that would have been a waste of my ticket cost, but I did benchmark a few particularly unenthused audience members and - lo and behold - they didn't return back again. Not half as bad, however, as the family sat in front of me who left the show 3 minutes into the opening number, which I do think crosses the line slightly, if nothing else because it was both distracting and blindly obvious.

Talking about that opening number, that was the point where I had to question their casting of Isaac: a conversation I thought would be controversial, but most people on this thread who have seen this current run do seem to agree (be that a good or a bad thing). My issue stemmed from the fact that they opened Ohmygod You Guys both flat and with a very whiny accent which, when combined, did have to make me question whether it was trying to ironically fit the stereotypical 'girl-who-thinks-she-can-sing-but-actually-cannot'. Maybe I just saw them on an off day, and if so then I retract that entire statement, but I definitely wasn't enthralled by their performance. I don't by any mean slate LB's 'diverse' casting, but I do agree with many others that it was probably a slight oversight from the casting team by the fact that their deeper voice sticks out over the harmonies due to their overcompensated accent. If they made the conscious decision to cast a trans, NB actor simply to trademark themselves as being 'diverse', then in some regards that could be almost worse than picking someone for the role who can sing it, as I'm almost certain that they would have had many suitable candidates. And if they did want to stick with Isaac, then they should have adapted the track slightly to better fit their voice, so that it would sound less strained.

Courtney was great, although maybe that's because I have nobody to compare her to. She had a lovely voice, she added in some fancy riffs at fitting points (mainly in So Much Better, which is probably the only place where they worked in most of the show), and she bought along the stereotypical Elle-ish charisma which you'd expect from the role. However, the chemistry between her and Michael just didn't exist, in my opinion. If it wasn't insinuated very heavily that there was romance there, it would have been quite easy to miss, although maybe that's just me being thick there. However, Michael's performance was great and he was probably one of my favourite cast members.

Lauren, as I had hoped, was amazing as Brooke. Whipped Into Shape was probably the best number in the whole show, and I felt tired just watching that choreography!

Nadine was another stellar performance as Paulette, who I loved in the role!

The dogs were an... interesting addition?

Personally, I didn't find the stage to be much of a problem. It could have been dressed better, but it was clear that the show was going for a pink overload so they definitely delivered on that. As it's only there for a month, I suppose a full cosmetic do-over would be unachievable in their short time at the theatre, as it'd all need to be stripped as soon as the run ends. It did, admittedly, look better as the sun went down and it got darker after the interval, with the purple lights in the trees complimenting the stage lighting nicely. The outdoors does mean that the sound quality is definitely hindered. With such a wide expanse, the sound seems to travel in every direction but toward the audience, which did become quite annoying after a while. In some songs, Courtney was drowned out over the ensemble because their mics overpowered hers. This is hopefully a problem which they can fix for the future, even if it's just by increasing her mic audio levels to counterbalance the harmonies.

The costumes, however, definitely looked cheap and tacky. Not the sophisticated 'rich vogue' look, as Elle is presented as, but instead a 'wannabe rich' vibe. As I didn't see the show in the previews, I can't comment on whether those complaints are directed at the same outfits as they're now using, but they still could have been a lot nicer than they are.

I purposefully waited before writing this review as I wanted to see how much of the performance I could actually retain from memory. As I assumed, it's not a lot. I couldn't recall a step by step narrative of the performance without looking up a Wikipedia synopsis first, and I most certainly couldn't tell you all about the choreography for different songs, as I could do for other musicals that I've seen recently.

All in all, for the pretty decent total cost of £30 for train + tickets + dinner, as I spent, it's not a bad night out. I still give Legally Blonde a solid 3 stars, as I think that most of the issues with the show can be fixed with a little bit of thought. Maybe not in time for the end of this run, but if the show is eyeing up a proper West End transfer then most of their cosmetic issues will go away anyway. And the other stars were lost simply because I don't think that this 'revival' does the show justice for new audiences who are trying to get into it.

Can’t believe people are still talking about it.

So went to see Carousel at Kilworth Open Air.
A bit more of a modern take on the usual offering with its post WW2 setting. Exciting choreo. Beautiful voices breathing fresh life organically into an ‘oldie’ without having to signpost or reinvent the script to accommodate diversity. We had a same sex couple at the clam bake, and a lovely male dance duet in June is Bustin out all over, Julie wasn’t a drip as is sometimes portrayed and the ballet had a bit of bite to it.
Sound was superb. Musicians gorgeous. A stunning set which didn’t need the sun to set to look good. No one riffing and sing screaming. Cast in tune.

This is how to do it OPEN AIR THEATRE.

I’m not sure why somewhere like OAT should have ongoing sound issues? Has no one pointed it out?

Lol.