Friday, May 25, 2007

The Night Legally Blonde Wasn't

The Night Legally Blonde Wasn't

One of the best things about the Internet and blogs is that you can learn all sorts of great information that "mainstream" news outlets wouldn't ordinarily share.

One of my Daily Blog Reads is the lovely and effervescent Sarah B. at Adventures In The Endless Pursuit Of Entertainment. I mean, with a name like that, it just has to be entertaining!

Yesterday, she shared the following experience after seeing Legally Blonde that I just had to pass along:


During the "Bend And Snap" number, Laura Bell (Bundy)'s wig came off. She picked it up and held it in her hands for a moment before putting it back on. She broke the
fourth wall
when she turned to the audience and said, "So much for Legally Blonde." The audience went wild by jumping to their feets and screaming. The music continued, but the cast lost it for at least five minutes. It was my first time to see this on Broadway. Sure, accidents happen but it's up to the cast to continue on. They almost couldn't. The audience ate it up because of course, it makes them even more connected with what's happening on stage -- a once in a lifetime that can never be repeated.

Hold on to your hat, Sarah, because I'm offering you a hat tip of my own. You've helped underscore yet another reason why I flip my wig over the spontaneity of live theatre any day -- including a show I don't care for -- over most stuff on the silver screen.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:
Tony Officially Shuts Out LoveMusik, Legally Blonde (May 24, 2007)
Tony Box Office Bumps (May 21, 2007)
Legally Blonde (The SOB Review) (May 8, 2007)
Did Critics You Know Like Totally Blonde? (April 30, 2007)
Legally Blonde Comes Of Age Tonight (April 29, 2007)
Dye Is Cast For Legally Blonde Reviews (February 8, 2007)
Coming Of Age: Legally Blonde Opens In San Francisco (February 6, 2007)
M-G-M: Movies-Going-Musical (January 3, 2007)
Which New Broadway Musical Are You Most Enthusiastic About Seeing? (October 16, 2006)
A Place Where Nobody Dared To Go...Until Now: They Call It Xanadu (July 18, 2006)
Broadway Bound to Get Nuttier with More Movie Adaptations Turned Musicals (June 7, 2006)

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4 Comments:

At 25 May, 2007, Blogger Sarah B. Roberts said...

Aw thanks Steve! I remembered this quote I heard from the 2005 interview of Sondheim at the MTR: "There's a good argument to be made for the fact that the excitement of theatre is ephemeral that one evening; that what you know instinctively when you're in an audience, unconsciously at the theatre is this performance is unique, it's got the same cast that was there last night and will be there tomorrow night, but tonight is unique, the laughs are going to be individual, something may go wrong on the stage, a prop may fall over, somebody may fall in the orchestra pit, something is live, and there is danger, and something also that makes it that it's being performed just for you..." Not that Legally Blonde is anything to be compared with Sondheim, but still it's live entertainment and it's in a theatre.

 
At 25 May, 2007, Blogger Steve On Broadway (SOB) said...

Sarah,

It's hard to compete with Sondheim, isn't it?! But I couldn't agree more with his quote. And isn't that sense of danger what makes Broadway and theatre so magical?

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Steve

 
At 26 May, 2007, Blogger Aaron Riccio said...

Exactly right, Steve. Live theater has the ability to do so much more; look at the difference between The Producers (2005) and the live performance with Broderick and Lane -- when I waited nine hours in line to get the limited SRO seats, Broderick had the nerve to call in sick an hour before the show. All through the performance, Lane ad-libbed at Broderick's expense, particularly during his jail-scene recap of the show: when he got to intermission, he just mimed an old lady knitting, looking around slowly, and then saying, "Where's Matthew BROD-erick?" Much funnier live than in my retelling, but you get the picture.

 
At 26 May, 2007, Blogger Steve On Broadway (SOB) said...

Great story, Aaron, and of course, one that you wouldn't probably know unless you were there.

Interesting that you saw Lane busting on Broderick's absence since it was the former who was a no-show when I first saw the show. I never had the chance to see them perform together until they returned to the show for a limited time encore.

 

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