Boot camp puts cast in the pink
When the touring production of Legally Blonde wrapped up in 2013 without heading west, it opened the door for the WA Academy of Performing Arts to grab the rights to the feel-good musical.
Third-year musical theatre student Kate Thomas, of Padbury, will step into the pink stilettos of Elle Wood, played in the original Australian show by WAAPA graduate Lucy Durack.
“Lucy is such an amazing talent so they are big shoes to step into but I am trying to make it my own and really put my own personality into it,” Thomas says. “I am having a lot of fun with it and doing the best I can.”
The young cast is in full rehearsals under director Jason Langley after a two-week boot camp to build their stamina for the physically demanding show, which includes a big punishing skipping-rope scene to start Act II.
“It was pretty tough,” Thomas says. “Our dance captain was getting us fit, getting us into gear, because it is such a high-energy show with so much dancing involved. It is a marathon.”
The 21-year-old cut short her health science studies at Curtin University to pursue her musical-theatre dreams and says the prospect of leaving the “WAAPA bubble” at the end of the year to look for a job on the east coast is scary and exciting. “I will just have to see what happens,” she says. “It is all about luck and timing.”
Based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde follows the deceptively ditzy blonde Elle Woods who graduates top of her Harvard law class.
“It is going to drag the young audience in,” Langley says. “It is the first contemporary musical WAAPA has done at The Regal.”
Langley, a freelance director who played Brave Sir Robin in the musical Spamalot, has directed several WAAPA productions including How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Easy Virtue. He takes great satisfaction in helping refine young performers’ skills and helping their careers after they leave WAAPA.
“I’m available to give them advice and sometimes invite them around for ‘play lunch’ when we have lunch to read a play.”
Legally Blonde is at the Regal Theatre from June 13-20.
