Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Site Map

CSPA is affiliated with the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in the City of New York.

In Legally Blonde, The Musical, the transitions from speech to song—the points where the characters spontaneously break into song dance—play a significant role in advancing the story.

According to Marc Bruni, the assistant director, in order to take a movie and turn it into a musical, “You need to find out where it sings.”

In the movie, Reese Witherspoon, who plays Elle, is able to portray subtle and intense emotion through facial expressions and body language. But these simply can’t be seen on a stage.

Whatever critique one can throw at the show, be it that the show fails to show a strong female or that it comes off as gaudy and obnoxious, the writers and directors made interesting use of the tools they had available to them.

Transitions must, of course, seem logical. The role of the songs is, as Marc Bruni, the associate director, said, “singing subtext,” expanding upon the emotions of the characters.

Elle, for instance, breaks into song immediately after Warner breaks up with her, and she breaks into a song of immense sadness after Warner proposes to another woman.

Of most interest is how the creators used these musical transitions. Shakespeare used the shift from and contrast between prose and verse to denote class and education. Having some actors deliver lines in song and others in speech has a likewise defining effect.

For instance, the Harvard students sing their introductions, but the song stops at Elle, showing her alienation. When Emmett is taken shopping, his lines initially break the music, but they change into song as his confidence grows.

Some of the songs, transitions included, are fairly superfluous, the most blatant being the semi-Irish songs and dance that are more of a quirk than a facet of the story.

But in terms of transitions, Legally Blonde, The Musical works effectively.

Elaine Carpenter is the managing editor of The Ridge, at Sage Ridge School in Reno, Nev. Collin Hilton is the opinion editor at The Piper, the newspaper of Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, Calif.