The cast of Laurence O’Keefe, Nell Benjamin and Heather Hach’s Legally Blonde performed on Children in Need last night. Here’s the footage:
Unfortunately, the performance is terrible. It’s under-rehearsed and very clear that the cast is not ready for a performance like this yet. Made up this way, Sheridan Smith looks too old for the role and she sounds awful. So much so that she and co-star Duncan James seem less talented than almost anyone in the chorus. Incredibly disappointing.
Smith sounds much better in this promotional video for the production, which has been out for ages:
Problem is she still looks like she’s been for a few too many rounds on the tanning bed and like she’s using a truckload of makeup to cover it up. The look will matter less on stage though, and I hope she has less of an issue with pitch in the theatre than she does in the live performance at Children in Need.
Musical Cyberspace 
I’m feeling really let down by the casting directors in regards to Elle and Warner. I love the actress who plays Paulette, and they Delta Nu’s were fun to watch. Thoughts?
Some of the “American” accents are a little frightening (Pilar in particular). I’m not really a fan of Elle’s voice. Or Warner’s for that matter. The most impressive out of that bunch was the girl playing Serena, in my opinion.
Hmm, I didn’t like Duncan James. The girl playing Elle was OK but not great, but I really like the Paulette and the Delta Nu’s. I wanted to see the guy playing Emmet too though. It looks like it’s going to be quite good. 😀
I saw the Emmett dude in the We Will Rock You tour. He’s amazing! You wont be disappointed.
Sheridan Smith is phenomenally talented, but that was a really sub-par performance. I feel she hasn’t really abandoned her “Audrey voice” yet.
Her singing voice can be incredible though.
If that’s her Audrey voice, I’m glad I never saw the Little Shop of Horrors in which she appeared!
I saw this last weekend. I was a little worried before I went as the Children in Need performance and the music video weren’t great. But I have to say that it was AMAZING. Sheridan and Duncan were WOW and the rest of the cast were amazing too! Sheridan, in my opinion, was better that any of the Broadway Elle’s. She is a fantastic actress. Sheridan is a comic character actress and pulled Elle off so well and I think people don’t expect her to have such a good voice as well. I’ll admit she sounds different to the other Elle’s that I have heard, but I think Sheridan is Fab!!!
I saw this a few months ago and I loved it. I have the album too. I was a bit worried about how it would compare to the film, but I loved it. I saw an understudy of Elle and she was very good and I loved Bruiser. It was very sweet.