truth and lies

Are Feminists Protesting ‘Legally Blonde’?

Laura Bell BundyPhoto by Paul Kolnik/Courtesy of Legally Blonde

Every brace-faced teenage girl dragged to New York by her family is clamoring to see Legally Blonde: The Musical, especially when Wicked tickets are sold out. If your tastes in show tunes skew more toward the edgy, sexed-up, indie-rock-flavored Spring Awakening … well, that’s your problem, you elitist sourpuss, because this big-budget musical version of the hit 2001 Reese Witherspoon flick is a feel-good song-and-dance juggernaut engineered specifically for you — if you wear pink without irony, are totally grossed out by your parents, and Justin T is your secret boyfriend. So here’s a game for true fans only: Below are three totally snarky lies, and mixed in is one equally snarky truth about the production. Can you tell which are which? (Answer tomorrow.)

(A) Legally Blonde’s producers are steamed at the Tony Awards for not allowing the cast to perform during its broadcast, the premier national showcase for Broadway’s best.

(B) Recent Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire refuses to admit that he was brought in as a script doctor a couple of weeks before the show opened on Broadway.

(C) After proving her pipes in 2005’s Walk the Line, producers attempted to woo Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon to tread the boards, but she rejected the offer.

(D) During previews in San Francisco, local feminists protested the production as being derogatory toward women, specifically the celebration of sorority stereotypes. —John DeVore

Are Feminists Protesting ‘Legally Blonde’?