Legally Blonde Sets Broadway Closing Date

The Broadway production of Legally Blonde has set a closing date of October 19 at the Palace Theatre. The show, which opened on April 29, 2007, will have played 30 previews and 595 regular performances upon closing.

A musicalization of the popular feature film starring Reese Witherspoon as stylish Harvard Law student Elle Woods, Legally Blonde received seven 2007 Tony nominations, including nods for actors Laura Bell Bundy as Elle, Orfeh as Paulette and Christian Borle as Emmett and a best choreography nomination for Jerry Mitchell who also directed. The show features a book by Tony nominee Heather Hach and score by the Tony-nommed team of Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe.

Legally Blonde was filmed and broadcast on MTV last October 13 and then became the subject of an eight-episode reality casting series The Search for Elle Woods on the network that resulted in Bailey Hanks joining the Broadway company as Elle on July 23. Although the production experienced a bump in grosses after Hanks' debut, briefly topping 90% of capacity, it has recently been playing to houses that are 60% full in a theater with almost 1,700 seats.

In addition to Hanks, Orfeh and Borle, the current cast of Legally Blonde includes Richard H. Blake as Warner, Kate Shindle as Vivienne, Nicolette Hart as Brooke, and Michael Rupert as Professor Callahan. Also featured are Tracy Jai Edwards, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Kate Rockwell, Lucia Spina, Barry Anderson, April Berry, Kyle Brown, Lindsay Nicole Chambers, Beth Curry, Amber Efe, Tiffany Engen, Stephanie Fittro, Josh Franklin, Jason Gillman, Rod Harrelson, Eric Hatch, Manuel Herrera, Autumn Hurlbert, Nick Kenkel, Cara Massey, Rusty Mowery, Emily Padgett, Kevin Pariseau, Jody Renard, Dani Spieler, Bryan West.

The first national tour of Legally Blonde kicked off on September 23 at Rhode Island's PPAC and will eventually play in 35 cities across the country.