The History of Legally Blonde: The Musical
Legally Blonde: The Musical premiered on stage in April 2007. The musical is based off of the 2001 movie Legally Blonde and the book Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown. The book was optioned for the movie before it had ever been published, so the book is only published at a later date than the movie. Because of this, there may be different things events that helped to shape each version of Legally Blonde.
When the musical was released in April 2007, the culture did not seem to be reflecting any of what was happening in the musical. The majority of big events that were reported had to do with war in the Middle East. It seems that if there were any news about colleges, it was about sports. There were others news stories about schools, but none of the stories were about situations that are seen in Legally Blonde.
When the musical was recorded in September 2007, there was not much in culture that the musical reflected, either. At that times, wars, peace talks, and Hurricane Felix were in the news. The musical was aired on MTV in October 2007. There were not many news stories that were reflected in the musical. Most of the stories were about war and weather. However, in Legally Blonde, it is revealed that Brooke Wyndham’s pool boy is gay and his lover will no longer keep his secret. It was in October 2007 that J.K. Rowling made the public aware that her character Albus Dumbledore was homosexual. However, the musical aired on 13 October and Rowling made the announcement on 20 October. Rowling could have decided to make the announcement being the musical aired, but it is doubtful that these two things influenced each other.
Being that it doesn’t seem that Legally Blonde: The Musical reflected anything happening in culture, it is necessary to see if the movie, Legally Blonde, reflected anything happening in culture at the time that it was released. There were a few things that happened in the same month of July 2001 when the movie was released, however, the movie was released on the 13th before these things happened. On the 19th, Jeffrey Archer was sentenced to four years in prison for perjury. Then, on the 20th, a woman named Vanessa Leget was found in contempt for not releasing notes she took for a book about a murder. If these things had happened before the movie’s release, some reflections might be seen in the court case against Brooke Wyndham.
It seems that this musical and the movie are not reflective of the ongoing in culture at the time they were produced. It is pointed out by people who know about the author of the original book and her life that Amanda Brown is a blonde that went to law school, so it seems she wrote what she knew. She probably was not writing anything deep about what was going on in the world. Instead, she was writing what she knew from experience and encounters in her world.
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