Legally Blonde (musical)

Legally Blonde
Original Broadway production
Music	Nell Benjamin Laurence O'Keefe
Lyrics	Nell Benjamin Laurence O'Keefe
Book	Heather Hach
Basis	Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown Legally Blonde by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith
Premiere	January 23, 2007: Golden Gate Theatre, San Francisco
Productions	2007 San Francisco 2007 Broadway 2010 West End Various international/regional productions and tours
Awards	Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical Helpmann Award for Best Musical

Legally Blonde is a 2007 musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin and a book by Heather Hach. It is based on the novel Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown and the 2001 film of the same name.

The show tells the story of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who enrolls at Harvard Law School to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner. She discovers how her knowledge of the law can help others, and she successfully defends exercise queen Brooke Wyndham in a murder trial. Throughout the show, very few characters have faith in Elle, with the exception of her aesthetician Paulette, but she manages to surprise them when she defies expectations while staying true to herself.

Legally Blonde premiered in pre-Broadway tryouts in San Francisco, California. In April 2007 the show moved to Broadway, opening to mixed reviews and disappointing sales.^[1] Jerry Mitchell directed and choreographed. The original cast starred Laura Bell Bundy as Elle, Christian Borle as Emmett, and Richard H. Blake as Warner. It received seven Tony nominations and ten Drama Desk nominations but did not win any. The West End production opened in January 2010 at the Savoy Theatre. The West End production was nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards and won three, including the Best New Musical award.

The musical was recorded in September 2007 and aired on MTV in October 2007. Following this, a reality television program aired showing the audition process for the next person to play Elle Woods on Broadway. The winner was Bailey Hanks, who played the role from July 23, 2008, until the production closed on October 19, 2008.^[2]