The opening night for “Legally Blonde The Musical” was on Thursday, Jan 23. Theater began preparing for the show in October, with auditions starting on the 28. Auditions were four days long, each day focusing on a different aspect: vocal auditions, dance clinic, dance auditions and callbacks.
“I had to prepare a 16 to 32-bar cut of one of the songs,” Reagan Donnelly, ‘25, said. “We were provided with a couple of different songs based on which character we were auditioning for. Then we had a couple of dance clinics and a dance audition.”
Roles for students who are part of tech theater and helping out behind the scenes, were assigned to them by theater director Lisa Custer, based on their work from previous shows. Some of the roles backstage include stage manager, assistant tech director, costume manager and prop manager.
“I was working on the set for ‘Midsummer’ when Ms. Custer came up to me and asked me ‘Do you want to be prop manager?’” Sophia Gregory, ‘26, said. “I said ‘yes, of course!’ The last time I had been in charge of props had been in eighth grade. You just have to be reliable, responsible and have lots of ideas to contribute.”
Donnelly was cast for the role of Elle Woods. She started theater in second grade due to her love for singing and dancing and has been doing it ever since.
Leading up to opening night, rehearsals were longer and more frequent. The week leading up to it was tech week, which required them to be at rehearsals from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the weekend and until 9:30 p.m. on school days. When rehearsal started a few months ago, they focused on learning choreography and vocal rehearsals. At the end of the process, rehearsal mainly consisted of running through the show, smoothing everything out and figuring out costumes and quick changes.
“I spend time at rehearsals coordinating with the team and troubleshooting any issues,” assistant tech director Veer Krishnapuram, ‘25, said. “We usually have a checklist of tasks we need to finish and my job is to make sure those get done. This is the biggest set we’ve ever built by far, and every time we check something off, there’s always more to do. It’s been a lot, but seeing everything come together makes it all worth it.”
Balancing longer rehearsals and school was an issue for many of the cast members.
“I’m just trying to get through it, I’m on survival mode right now,” Donnelly said. “I guess I maintain my work life balance by keeping some time to myself when I get home after rehearsals for 15 minutes to eat some food. Then I do homework in my room until I’m exhausted and just need to sleep.”
For seniors, this is one of the last shows before graduation. Reaching the end of the process was bittersweet.
“I always enjoy working with others and leading the team,” Krishnapuram said. “I’ve been in the booth helping with design since freshman year. I wanted to experience all the backstage fun one last time.”
“Legally Blonde” is one of the biggest shows theater has done, with over 90 students participating. As their months of work end, the students are eager to perform. Tickets and more information can be found on the theater’s website.
“As the show date gets closer, the pressure builds because there’s still so much to do but that feeling of seeing everything finally come together, knowing the audience is about to step into the world we’ve worked so hard to create, makes all the long hours and challenges completely worth it,” Krishnapuram said. “It’s the kind of adrenaline that reminds me why I love doing this.”
