Hickman's 'Legally Blonde' emphasizes empowerment of women

As it does in the 2001 movie with Reese Witherspoon, “Legally Blonde” emphasizes the empowerment of women.

Karma Vaughn plays Elle in the Hickman production and described her character as inspiring, bubbly and lighthearted. Vaughn, a senior, said the 2007 musical shares the same joyful energy as her character while still overall representing the importance of female empowerment.

“Everybody’s judging her immediately based on the way that she looks or the way that she carries herself, so the musical is about how she’s overcoming that and bettering herself,” Vaughn said. “It’s very much a feminist movement.”

Mickael Kasten, a sophomore who plays Kyle and Grandmaster Chad, agreed. He added that “Legally Blonde” is the first musical that Hickman has put on with a predominately female cast in several years.

“Every other play that we’ve done is either not specifically led by any gender or it’s led by a male, but right now it’s female-led,” Kasten said. “This is female empowering. All the men are secondary characters, and I love that because we needed something like that to be represented.”

Sarah Gerling, who teaches theater at Hickman and is the show’s lead director, said the last time they’ve had this many female leads in a production was when they put on “Hairspray” about four years ago. This musical will be even more female-driven and has an emphasis on their character growth, she said.

“We see the female-identifying characters in the show go through the biggest growth,” Gerling said. “They change in really powerful ways, and we see that especially through the character Elle.”

Aaron Wucher, a junior, plays law student Aaron Schultz. Wucher said one of his favorite examples of female empowerment and growth in the production is when Elle becomes valedictorian of her class.

“It shows us that in our society, we need to uphold women and make sure that they get into more positions of power and have those same opportunities that men do,” Wucher said.

The production includes some queer representation.

Jordan Reeves, a junior, plays Harvard law student Enid Hoopes. Reeves said she thinks Enid is a neat representation of a queer character considering when “Legally Blonde” was written.

“I feel like there are moments when queer characters are poorly written, but I feel like this one isn’t that bad,” Reeves said, “and I’m enjoying making it my own.”

Gerling said the production tries to stay faithful to the movie’s characters, script and musical numbers.

“Although these characters are presented, maybe in a silly or very light-hearted way, we still get to see (them) as an integral part of the story,” Gerling said.

Another example of queer representation in the musical is the character of Nikos, murder suspect Brooke Wynden’s pool boy, who appears in a scene often referred to as “Gay or European” or “There! Right there!”

The scene takes place during the murder trial. While Elle defends Brooke, Nikos claims to have been having an affair with her, giving her a motive to kill her husband. In the end, he accidentally outs himself after being questioned by Emmett, Elle’s love interest and a lawyer.

“It’s so small, the scene of them trying to figure out if he’s even straight,” Reeves said, “but I think (the musical) takes these scenes that can mean a lot and makes them very lighthearted and important.”

At the end of the scene, Gerling said, Progress Pride Flags will be taken across the stage as a nod to the queer community.

“I love having LGBTQ representation in the show,” Gerling said. “I know that’s something that really resonates with many of our students.”

Gerling added that inclusivity was important to include in the musical along with the theme of female empowerment. She hopes the audience will leave feeling joyful.

“There’s a lot of positivity and good vibes in this show,” she said, “so I definitely hope that sense of happiness is something that people walk away with.”