(Ohmigod) you guys!

I am so happy Legally Blonde did well with critics. I heard insider rumblings that the show wasn't quite there AND I watched the video footage and got very worried for it (those costumes, which got good reviews, looked horrible to me), but, it is now an out-of-town hit. Yay. I've been a fan of this songwriting team for a long time, so I am happy for them in particular. But mostly I'm just happy I am not going to have to sit through another show this spring with bomb written all over it. I mean, sure, those are campy for about a second, but then... Now out-of-town positive notices do not necessarily spell Broadway success--Urban Cowboy people--but the show is one step closer.

I did my best to summarize below:

Dennis Harvey, Variety: "This fuchsia fluffsicle, socked over by choreographer-turned-director Jerry Mitchell, might not win over those opposed on principal to the Hollywoodization of Broadway. But its S.F. tryout is already a genuinely likable, splashy crowd-pleaser that could prove grumble-proof come its May Rialto launch... Bundy may not have Witherspoon's radiant warmth (who does?), but she engagingly makes the role her own even as she delivers a faithful reproduction of its originator's (nonsinging) character voice... So much of Legally Blonde is so smartly engineered, good looking, high energy and hilarious that it's easy to forgive those few moments sporting an earnestness this material can't easily support. (Much is lumped on Borle, though he manages to be funny when he can.) Among the show's many appealing aspects is how it manages to swim in broadly amusing shallows most of the time while avoiding heartlessness. The be true to yourself message is utterly by-the-numbers -- but such is the evening's charm that it doesn't seem fake."

Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle: "It's a buoyant blend of comic invention, captivating performances, bright design and knock-'em-dead dance numbers as staged and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. But it loses momentum at key moments, about two-thirds of the way through each of its two acts... David Rockwell's slick, restless sets -- pieces of sorority, Harvard Law and courtroom interiors and exteriors, shops, a palatial bathroom, forever sliding into place and rearranging themselves -- and Gregg Barnes' hot-pink and cool-gray costumes amplify the visual experience to cartoon level. Mitchell takes advantage of every opportunity to inject similarly animated production numbers, while keeping the plot and clever interchanges of Heather Hach's faithful book crystal clear... Broadway veteran Bundy isn't an outstanding dancer -- not in this company -- but she has a strong, attractive voice and is a radiantly beguiling, smart Elle. It would help her case if she weren't saddled with the show's least appealing songs."

Chad Jones, The Oakland Tribune: "For a just-hatched show, this Blonde is in awfully good shape, though (not to disparage blondes in any way) it doesn't have a whole lot going on in its pretty head. And that's OK. Sometimes you just want a musical to shake its sparkles at you and make you smile. Rather than feel guilty about that, if the musical is crafted with a degree of skill and intelligence, you can sit back and enjoy... [The score] treads the line of pleasant if unremarkable pop and disco with hints of R&B. Heather Hach's book attempts to make characters more interesting than they were in the 2001 movie, which, frankly, isn't much of a challenge... The hero in all of this is Jerry Mitchell... The romance between Elle and Harvard teaching assistant Emmett (the charming Christian Borle) is still a few flames short of a blaze... But then again, there are pleasures like Bundy's cute-as-a-button Elle, Orfeh as sassy hairdresser Paulette and Andy Karl as the UPS guy who steals Paulette's heart and nearly steals the show. Though they're more effective as valley-talking sorority sisters than as Elle's only-in-her-brain Greek chorus, Annaleigh Ashford, Leslie Kritzer and DeQuina Moore ratchet up the vivacious quotient whenever they're onstage. They rev up the feel-good, girl-power motor that keeps the musical buzzing along for more than 2 1/2 hours."

Pat Craig, The Contra Costa Times: "The Broadway-bound musical is a bounce of happy energy that explodes from the stage with bolts of cotton-candy-colored lightning... [The creators] have made Blonde a big, noisy Broadway show in the most traditional, and best, sense. It has been written as a contemporary piece with cultural references that have a very short shelf life (indeed, if the show has a long run on Broadway, which seems close to a certainty, there will have to be fairly frequent updating)... Director/Choreographer Jerry Mitchell has imbued the show with a sizzling pace that allows many of the supporting performers, particularly Blake, Borle, Annaleigh Ashford, Kate Shindle, Leslie Kritzer, DeQuina Moore and Orfeh, to shine in classic dance and comedy bits that give the piece a wonderfully nimble style."

Karen D'Souza, San Jose Mercury News: "This is girl power gone wild. This is booty-shaking as self-help. This is arm candy as extreme sport. In its world premiere at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre (it's scheduled to bow on Broadway in April), this here is a vapid-and-lovin'-it guilty pleasure show that truly dares to bling it on. Props to Jerry Mitchell for some, dare we say, awesome dance routines... Bootylicious moves plus J-Lo-esque duds (Gregg Barnes' couture is so juicy it drips!) and rad Barbie dream house sets (kudos to David Rockwell for his use of a bat-pole onstage) well may make this musical a ka-ching magnet on the Great White Way. Still, in his directorial debut, Mitchell handles the whole character development thing with somewhat less agility. Despite a bubbly-meets-snarky book (by Heather Hach) and score (by Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe), Elle's journey from wannabe trophy wife to Harvard valedictorian doesn't really register on an emotional level."