Theater Department Presents Legally Blonde the Musical

BVSW Performing Arts Department presented their musical, Legally Blonde, on February 19th through February 21st.  Legally Blonde is an awarding winning musical based off of the 2001 movie and can be described as both hilarious and heart-warming.

The musical follows Elle Woods, a blonde sorority girl who enrolls in Harvard Law school in pursuit of love. However, she ends up breaking stereotypes and solving a murder along the way.

“It’s very hard, probably the hardest musical I’ve ever done because there’s just song sequence after song sequence after dance sequence,”director Dan Schmidt said.  “It’s not a lot of stopping.”

Paige Boomer, Emily Butler( in center),  Hannah Tymosko (on right), and  Lauren Browning ( on left) rehearse 2 weeks before Legally Blonde performance in the PAC.
Paige Boomer, Emily Butler( in center), Hannah Tymosko (on right), and Lauren Browning ( on left) rehearse 2 weeks before the Legally Blonde performance in the PAC.

The musical became even more challenging when, Dan Schmidt underwent surgery.

“I was here for the open call, where I heard everyone sing. For the auditions but I just couldn’t make it back,” Schmidt said.

So Schmidt’s student teacher at the time, Taylor Avazpour, and the music director Julie Danielson went through the callbacks and did the rest of the audition process. Thankfully, in January, Schmidt was back and everyone picked up where they left off.

“It was a struggle for us and him both in the beginning weeks of January because he hadn’t cast the show and he had not been there to see what we’d learned so far,” senior actor Romaric Keuwo said.

After weeks of hard work and rushing to get props done, choreography learned, and scenes perfected, Legally Blonde The Musical was audience ready.

“I am so proud of our cast,” senior Emma Lucas after the show said. “Also, I like how we got a standing ovation on our final performance, which was so cool!”

Giana Epps (center)  Zach St. Clair (on left) and Hannah Tymosko (on right) preparing for the show.
Giana Epps (center) Zach St. Clair (on left) and Hannah Tymosko (on right) preparing for the show.

Legally Blonde is just one musical out of many performances at Blue Valley Southwest. Senior Romaric Keuwo has been auditioning since freshman year but this is first year getting a callback. He really wanted to exit out of the theater department with a bang.

“When it’s over, it’s over … So make sure you hug your castmates and tell them how much you love them,” Keuwo said.

As for students who want to participate in the musical in later years, Keuwo’s advice is to give it your all.

“A good audition requires it! It doesn’t matter if you mess up, what matters is that you try your best, sing your best, and dance your best,” Keuwo said.

Freshman ensemble member and dancer, Mackenzie Beeton, found her first year participating in the musical to be an exciting experience and would like to participate in many more productions in the future.

“Mr. Schmidt picks out [musicals] that are really perfect. I’m just excited for the ones to come,” Beeton said.