Legally Blonde -Zilker Summer Musical 2024 -A Review

Every summer, for so many years living in Austin, we have enjoyed watching high-quality Broadway-grade productions on the open-air Zilker Hillside Theatre for free! The Shakespeare in the Park or the Zilker Theatre Productions (ZTP).

This summer, we had a fantastic Saturday evening at the Zilker Hillside Theatre with the ZTP show Legally Blonde. Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Motion Picture "Legally Blonde" starring Reese Witherspoon.

Legally Blonde is the empowering story about how Elle Woods, a fashion major sorority girl, enrolls in Harvard Law School to win over her ex-boyfriend. She tackles stereotypes and faces skepticism from her peers and professors, but with unwavering optimism and the support of her new friends Emmet Forrest and her hairdresser friend Paulette, she discovers her true potential, passion, and power of the law degree. 

If you liked the movie Legally Blonde, you would love this theatre production with its lightweight and fun comedy, tongue-in-cheek dialogues and lyrics, high-energy songs and dance choreography, high-tempo music by Laurance O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, fabulous, eye-catching costumes and pink ambiance lighting. 

Each of the actors has excellent performances, especially the lead actors Megan Hudson as Elle Woods and Will Mallick as Emmet Forrest, and Ashtyn Kahn as Paulette. Besides being pretty in pink, Megan brought out the ethos and spirit of Elle and Reese perfectly.

Elles's empowering journey of self-discovery, perseverance, staying true to oneself, optimism, and shattering stereotypes are excellent themes that need to be echoed and embraced by all for true success.

Dressed in pink, with picnic blankets, picnic baskets with tuna bagel sandwiches, chips and dips, pretzels, snacks, banana bread, drinks, water, precautionary dabs of lavender oils, and mosquito repellant, and a pack of uno for pre-show entertainment, our family was ready for the fun evening. 

It was a hot evening, but the help desk gave out paper fans along with and the musical programs. I was also lucky to go backstage to meet a friend who supervises the costumes and wardrobe of the musical. At intermission, I even got an answer to my curious query of how Elle changed her costume on stage so fast when she was dress-shopping and prepping for her possible proposal. The astonishing answer is that magnets sewn on the dress snap together fast!

Zilker Theatre Productions Legally Blonde the Musical has been showing July 12 through August 18, 2024, Thursday to Sunday at 8.15 p.m. Blankets can be laid out starting at 6:00 p.m. to secure prime spots for the show. Arriving at 6:50 p.m., we found a slightly diagonal spot with a decent view.

Since it was a Saturday, it drew large crowds, and more than 1000 people were watching this entertaining musical. We saw some familiar faces but because of the large crowd we couldn't spot some of our friends who were there as well.

Zilker summer musicals have been an Austin Tradition since 1959, when Austin's Parks and Recreation Department created it as an annual project. Sustaining the legacy of serving the Austin community through the magic of performing, these theatre productions make the arts accessible, with Broadway-grade productions inspiring artists and audiences and celebrating the spirit of community.   They welcome donations and during intermission, the cast comes out to the Hillside with buckets for donations, too. The program also has QR codes to donate electronically. 

FYI, if you are a dog lover, with the help of the Austin Animal Center, you can adopt one of the animal stars of ZTP's Legally Blonde- The Musical.

 So, get your friends and family together, pack a picnic and head to the Zilker Hillside Theatre- its and experience you won't want to miss. Last day of the show is August 17, 2024.