Peacock Players present Legally Blonde The Musical Jr.
The 2001 Reese Witherspoon classic comedy film Legally Blonde was reimagined into a musical stage play in 2007. Nashua-based theater company Peacock Players will be among the latest to present the youth production of this show, Legally Blonde The Musical Jr., at The Janice B. Streeter Theatre (14 Court St., Nashua) from Friday, Aug. 4, through Sunday, Aug. 6.
“It’s a show about a young woman who thinks her whole life revolves around [a] man,” said Elle Millar, the show’s director. “She finds out that her whole life is actually worth so much more than that.”
Millar has been the executive director at Peacock Players for about a year. Originally from Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, Millar was involved in theater growing up and went on to study opera performance in college. She soon realized being an opera performer wasn’t the lifestyle she saw for herself, and decided instead to be an English teacher.
“Over Covid, like a lot of people, I was doing a lot of soul-searching,” she said. “I really enjoyed what I did but I didn’t feel like I was fulfilling every part of myself. I was the drama director at the middle school but I just felt like, ‘This isn’t the best way to do the things that I love to do.’”
Over the pandemic, Millar was planning to open an arts education nonprofit when the executive director position at Peacock Players opened up.
“I had heard from some of our teens that this was the show that got canceled right before Covid,” she said. “I also love the show personally … [and] it’s always been a dream of mine to direct [it] so it’s really exciting to get to do it here and in this way.”
Making her Peacock Players debut is Gianna Stewart-Markert. The starring role of Elle Woods is quite different from characters she is used to playing, like Carrie in Carrie: The Musical and the role of Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago that she will play this fall.
“Elle Woods is definitely very bubbly and determined,” Stewart-Markert said of her character.
So when her Harvard-attending boyfriend breaks up with her, she uses that determination to get into the law school herself. She is then assigned to defend famous fitness guru Brooke Wydham, who is accused of murdering her husband.
“She’s this fitness queen [who] makes millions of dollars with her fitness DVDs,” said Lily Azevedo, who plays Wyndam. “She’s kind of a girl boss. … She is definitely strong, independent and an entrepreneur because she’s making those millions.”
As this was a show involving a lot of dancing, Azevedo went into auditions with an open mind, knowing that even if she ended up only being in the ensemble that she would still get the chance to dance.
“There’s one dance called ‘Whipped Into Shape’ and it’s gotten me whipped into shape,” she said. “[There’s] a lot of jumping and a lot of singing and high notes and belting but it’s like a love-hate relationship. I really enjoy it but it’s also really difficult, but the more we work on it, the turnout will be fabulous.”
According to Millar, strong vocalists are a must for this show. About twice as many kids as the show requires auditioned, and while this called for tough, heartbreaking decisions, it meant the cast would consist of solid, committed members, she said.
“This is a show you don’t attempt unless you think you have the voices to pull it off,” Millar said. “You need a lot of strong singers in a very specific pop, belty style, so this would not be a show I would [have] picked before I got to know the kids, but we had the people we needed.”
Peacock Players present Legally Blonde The Musical Jr.
When: Friday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 5, at 2 and 7 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 6, at 2 p.m.
Where: The Janice B Streeter Theatre (14 Court St., Nashua)
Cost: Tickets range from $12 to $18; call the box office at 886-7000 or visit peacockplayers.org
