Smart, friendly, and always blonde, Elle Woods has been taking on Harvard Law School for five years on professional stages. Now, Minnetonka High School Theater is recreating Elle’s journey from the tanned campus of UCLA to the dark halls of Harvard on the Arts Center Stage. Legally Blonde is an especially exciting challenge for any non-professional theater because the rights were just released. Minnetonka is one of the first high school theaters to put Elle Woods’ story on the main stage.
Legally Blonde is not just challenging because it is new, however. The score is full of high belting, a type of singing which is difficult and can even hurt untrained voices. The dance type is hip hop- a style which most Minnetonka actors aren’t trained for (but which does look pretty cool onstage). The special effects are possibly the most impressive element of the show, however. Elle’s mom and dad travel across the stage in a fully-functional pink Mini Cooper. There are two trained dogs- Rufus, the bulldog, and Bruiser, the chihuahua. Mr. Knutson, leader of the Arts Center and director of Legally Blonde, hopes to send the Greek Chorus flying across the stage on a moving surfboard. The set also needs to flow seamlessly from one scene to another, as there is very little blackout time in Legally Blonde to manually change the set. For the crew, this means gracefully flying in massive set pieces while avoiding a collision.
While Legally Blonde may see like a first for the theater, Minnetonka High School has a reputation for taking on new and difficult shows. Minnetonka Theater was one of the first non-professional theaters to get the rights for Phantom of the Opera. In addition to getting new and exclusive rights, Minnetonka Theater has also flown vampires in Dracula, built a full-sized (but luckily harmless) guillotine, and sent actors driving across the stage in fully-functional cars.
With all of these exclusive rights and impressive special effects, it seems Minnetonka Theater is becoming more professional with each musical they do, and in a way, they certainly are.
Mr. Knutson would by no means say that Minnetonka Theater is professional, but he does say that Minnetonka adds professional elements to their shows primarily for educational purposes and “because the kids are up to it.” In addition, Minnetonka Theater does new, exciting, and exclusively “professional” shows to keep their audiences engaged. These new show rights open up suddenly, however, and Knutson needs to be ready to take them when they are available. For this reason, Knutson keeps a fluid spring schedule- always subject to (and which usually does) change. He’s keeping his eye out for the rights to other unreleased musicals right now, like Mama Mia and The Little Mermaid.
Most area high schools seem to be trending towards this professionalism. Many Minnesota high schools are taking on theatrical challenges similar to that of Minnetonka’s by performing new and difficult pieces. Several will probably perform Legally Blonde next year, and many are taking on larger shows, like Brigadoon and Urinetown this year- probably to keep their audiences engaged.
One thing is for certain- Minnetonka audiences will certainly be engaged with this new, very pink musical that is coming to the high school theater this spring.
