Legally Blonde: Musical and Movie
April 28, 2008
Legally Blonde, the book by Amanda Brown, has been masterfully adapted as both a major motion picture and a Broadway play. Both adaptations of this story have a similar plot breakdown and many of the same settings. The dramatic production, by necessity, had fewer characters; however all of the main characters essential to the story remained the same in both works. The dramatic work is a musical which allowed it to trade complex settings and scenery with deep emotions. Although the two works were almost identical in length, the musical was more entertaining, while the motion picture allowed for a more complex storyline and more characters.
The plot of Legally Blonde is in classic form. It starts with a short exposition explaining the background of the story and informing us that Elle is about to be engaged. Then during the crisis we find out that she actually gets dumped for a more serious girl. The story climaxes with Elle winning the murder trial and saving the day. It resolves with Callahan getting fired, Warner getting rejected and Elle getting together with Emmett. There are many static, flat characters in this film such as Professor Callahan, the UPS Guy, and Warner Huntington, III. However, there are also several dynamic, flat characters as well including Paulette Bonafonte, who gains self confidence with the help of Elle. There is also Vivian Kensington, who at first is Elle’s foil, but later becomes her friend. Elle, of course, is a round character. She is a static character because she remains true to herself and does not let others force her into their mold. She refuses to trade her morals for a successful job at Callahan’s Firm and keeps the trust of her client against the advice of her legal mentors. Elle was an admired character because she was herself and didn’t change.
The dramatic adaptation of Legally Blonde is a work that interacts with the audience much more profoundly than the film version was able to. This is due mainly to the fact that the Broadway production is a musical with rhyming dialogue between characters and music that sets the emotional stage. The settings of the musical were also critical to the work. For instance, in one scene the sorority sisters are all excited about Elle getting engaged. During this scene each sister sings her line after popping out of a life size window in the two story stage prop. This simple stage setting was critical to portraying the unity and peppiness of the sorority. The stage production did not have the resources or ability to show all of the physical settings of the story, a fact which seemed to be one of the reasons that the plot was different in the play. They did, however, effectively use techniques such as spotlighting and audience redirection to keep the story and settings flowing. The play also uniquely used a purple lighting effect to indicate to the audience that the sorority trio later in the play was in Elle’s imagination rather than physically in the scene.
I believe the greatest connection between Legally Blonde and another work is its relationship to Trifles by Susan Glaspell. Both works have a relatively simplistic plot with a fairly predictable conclusion. More importantly, both seem to be written from a feminist perspective. Legally Blonde has the cliché dumb blonde who turns out to be smarter than the lawyers around her. Trifles is about two unassuming housewives simply at the crime scene because of their husbands. However, it is they, not their husbands, who figure out the crime and save the day while at the same time saving their likeminded counterpart who is in legal trouble (another parallel with Legally Blonde). Both works have the same basic plot: an unlikely girl overcomes the preconceived assumptions about her and figures out the crime before those men around her whose job it is to do so. She then gains the trust and saves the reputation of her counterpart. It is this common theme which leads me to believe that both of these works are from the same feminist perspective. Even though my mindset starting both works was less than optimistic, they both turned out to be entertaining and surprisingly well written.
In conclusion, both the dramatic and film adaptations of Legally Blonde were unexpectedly engaging. The plot, especially of the play, effectively immersed the audience in the story and by the end of the production the audience too was happy for Elle’s victory. Viewing both the Broadway play and the film version of this story allowed for a much deeper understanding of the differences, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, of each venue. This was a very effective way to learn an appreciation for the many forms that a single story may take and see the interpretation that each director seeks to convey to the audience.
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