Review: Drama Club brings wit and energy to ‘Legally Blonde’
Ask almost any kid in the Shelter Island Drama Club why they are in the play, “Legally Blonde,” playing this weekend at the school, from the 12th grade veteran who has done the play every year for five years to the rookie seventh grader, they say the same thing: “Because it’s fun.”
That joy is apparent in the pink-scented, fizzy musical that opened Thursday night, with the curtain due to fall on the final performance Sunday. For the first time, the roles are not double-cast; each actor owns their part.
Despite the months of preparation, of learning their lines, hitting their marks, mastering dance steps and songs, Director John Kaasik and his producer wife, Anu, manage to make it fun. Mr. Kaasik said the reason he chose this year’s musical was because “the kids were most excited about it.”
Though the songs may not be the well-known classics in last year’s “Oklahoma!”, tunes like “Bend and Snap,” “Omigod, You Guys,” and my personal favorite, “Gay or European?” were memorable in their own right — or as a seventh-grade boy claimed about the finale, “That song is going to be in my head for the next year.”
I attended the dress rehearsal on Wednesday evening and was able to observe close-up the work that went into this production. During intermission, Musical Director Keith Brace pored over the score with his drummer, while the trumpet player sat alone nearby, practicing a difficult passage; backstage, stage manager Susan Binder and her black-clad crew stealthily and silently moved large sets and small props; at the end, Mr, Kaasik coached the players on making a professional curtain call and then had members of the cast — some who had already shed high heels and parts of their costumes — rework several songs with the orchestra. Though the kids must’ve been exhausted, they never lost their enthusiasm or their smiles.
The spirit of cooperation was everywhere: girls put makeup on the boys and then each other, while moms curled their hair; actors loaned pieces of their own clothing to help make costumes more authentic; faculty and community members provided hot dinners for hungry thespians before the dress rehearsals; dads helped boys with their quick costume changes; and older kids coached younger kids with their parts.
If you have other plans this weekend, change them. Join Lisa Kaasik as the loveable Elle Wood, surrounded by her gang of Delta Nu sorority girls, when she turns her law class upside-down, helps Paulette (Lea Giambruno) get her life back on track, frees fitness-star Brooke (Morgan McCarthy) from a jail sentence; decides between two suitors, serious Warner Huntington III (Wyatt Brigham) and not-so-serious Emmett Forest (Drew Garrison) and the rest of the cast and crew at the school as they take us on their adventure and show the lighter side of Harvard.
Performances are at 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. The box office opens a hour before showtime; tickets are still available for all performances and can be purchased at the door. Student tickets cost $8; adults, $12.
