Bend and Snap: Legally Blonde the Musical Takes Center Stage at Actors' Playhouse

Standing ever-so-stylishly behind the glass in the ticket booth outside the Miracle Theatre is a mannequin resembling one Elle Woods of Legally Blonde fame. She is dressed head to plastic toe in pink and even has a plush version of her best friend, Bruiser Woods, the chihuahua.

The life-size doll is promoting Actors' Playhouse's latest production, Legally Blonde the Musical. Set to open Friday, February 2, the musical stars Becca Andrews and Stephen Anthony as Elle Woods and Emmett Forrest, respectively.

Inside, the two actors are sitting in the rehearsal space on the theater's second floor. The warm sunshine pours from the large windows overlooking Miracle Mile, spilling over script binders and music sheets. Andrews gently sets her kombucha bottle next to her baby blue Stanley cup while Anthony puts on an oversized chunky cardigan to combat the chill in the room and the two take a seat side by side.

There's an unspoken bond intertwined with mutual respect and adoration for the other's talent between the two leads. They graciously take turns answering questions and genuinely compliment each other at every opportunity. It shows how the two actors, who have only known each other for a handful of weeks, are actively working to build a friendship that will seamlessly translate onto the stage.

Looking over at her cast mate, Andrews gushes, "When I first met Steven, I was immediately comfortable with him, and I thought he was warm and kind and funny."

"We sort of started off butting heads and being really hard on each other. That's how the best relationships go," Andrews adds with a chuckle.

The musical is an adaptation of the 2001 movie of the same name. Much like the beloved cult classic, the storyline follows Barbie-esque Elle Woods, whose ultimate goal in life is to marry pretty boy Warner Huntington III. When he dumps her (spoiler alert, but, like, we've all seen the movie, right?), she decides to go to law school at Harvard to try and win him back. What, like it's hard?

"I would say it's about a woman who changes her mind from what she thinks she wants to something else and discovers how she doesn't need a man to succeed," says Andrews, her brilliant blue eyes sparkling.

Although this will be Andrew's debut at Actors' Playhouse, it will be her sixth time reprising the role of Elle. "I have a lot of experience with the show," she says with a smile as she shyly looks down at her hands. "It's a really magical, wonderful show, and I'm very lucky that this is a role that I've kind of continued to do for the past decade, and it's one that I love so much."
She was 20 when she first donned the blonde wig and pink ensemble. More than a decade later, she's not only grown as a performer but matured as a woman. "I've been able to find a little bit more complexity in the role as I've gotten older," says the now 32-year-old actor. "It went from being this, like, just really fun explosion of happiness with fun costumes and catchy songs to now I've lived some life, and I have a new perspective of what it's like to be a woman and tell this story of a woman navigating this idea of what womanhood should be."

Similarly, her co-star, Anthony, appeared in a production of Legally Blonde while in college, playing Warner, the not-so-sweet ex-boyfriend. This time around, he's stepping into the shoes of good boy Emmett.

"It's making me really happy to revisit the musical from another perspective," says the Miami native. He moves his hands as he expresses himself. A palm tree — embossed on a gold signet ring on his right hand — waves around in the small room. "When [Legally Blonde] first came out," he continues, "I was like, do we really need another musical based on a movie? Then I saw it, and I think it's done perfectly. Sometimes, I forget that it's based on a movie because it stands alone so well. It's packed with so much fun, so much heart, so much energy, and so much good music."

While Anthony is returning to the musical for a second time, he's also returning home and back to the very stage that made him fall in love with theater.

"I did my first musical [at Actors' Playhouse] in 2001. It was my first time ever on a stage, and now I've been performing for 22 years professionally," he says.

His entire childhood was spent in the backstage labyrinth at the Actors' Playhouse. The young thespian not only performed on stage but also worked at the theater, took classes, and, of course, attended many shows.

He says, beaming, "It's been a dream for a long time to come back here and come back to my roots and get back on that stage."

And the show he gets to perform is one he doesn't want Miami audiences to miss.

"Come support this place and have a great time," he says. "You're going to laugh so hard. You're going to scream. You're going to clap along. You're going to tap your foot. You're going to leave singing the songs."

"Legally Blonde is truly like a musical for everybody," adds Andrews, tapping her freshly manicured pink nails on the plastic table as she speaks.

Legally Blonde the Musical. Friday, February 2, through Sunday, February 25, at the Actors' Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; actorsplayhouse.org. Tickets cost $40 to $100. Performances Wednesday through Saturday 8 p.m. and Sunday 3 p.m. Matinees February 3, 7, and 10 at 2 p.m.