History Theatre / LegallyBlonde

The 2007 musical, scripted by Heather Hach and with songs by the husband-and-wife team of Lawrence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, takes a different direction from [[Film/LegallyBlonde the 2001 movie]]. While the movie mixed over-the-top wacky comedy with more realistic comedy, the musical is DenserAndWackier, full of AcceptableBreaksFromReality and moments of LeaningOnTheFourthWall, though the songs are also highly integrated into the plot, with many long musical scenes that cover enormous amounts of story and CharacterDevelopment. Additionally, several minor characters (like Professor Stromwell and David) are dropped to focus more on a few key characters. In particular, Emmett's character is expanded upon significantly, and Elle's friendship (and eventual romance) with him becomes a much bigger part of the story.

* AdaptationalNationality: The pool boy is changed from Latino to Greek, complete with a name change, [[spoiler: in order for them to do a whole song about whether he's "gay or European"]].

** The pool boy's name is changed from Enrique to Nikos, to reflect the AdaptationalNationality change (see above).

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: As is pretty typical of any adaptation, most of the characters are at least a little different than they were in the movie, with the biggest example probably being Paulette, as the producers [[https://youtu.be/CIuRkCUIp7o?t=139 admitted]] the meek ShrinkingViolet version of the character in the movie wouldn't really translate well onto the stage where she has to emote to the back rows, so the musical's version of Paulette (especially as played by Orfeh) has Paulette's insecurity manifest as being more loudly neutoric and eccentric.

** In "Whipped Into Shape" Callahan shows his interns one of Brooke's workout tapes, in which she demonstrates her jump ropes can be used as defense weapons, as evidence that she killed her husband. In reality this wouldn't hold up very well as her husband died via gun shot wound, not strangulation or battery as demonstrated by Brooke in her tape.

** AdaptedOut when Elle negotiates for Paulette's dog back from her ex Dewey. In the movie, Elle claims to be a lawyer representing Paulette. That's illegal because she's not lawyer, just a a law student. Here Elle uses the more nebulous term "legal team" and brings Emmett (a licensed attorney) along with her, which at the very least downgrades it to murky rather than a clear-cut violation.

* MusicalisInterruptus
** During the breakup
--->'''Warner:''' ''That's why I think you and I... should break up!''\\
'''Elle:''' ''Oh baby I'll give you my hand, we--''WHAT!?

* DelayedReaction: When Warner announces to Elle he's breaking up with her, she takes a few second to process it:
--->'''Warner:''' That's why you and I... [[BaitAndSwitch should break up]].\\

** Warner rubbishes Elle's argument about Nico's testimony being discredited because he's 'clearly' gay, but he has a point that they can't just out someone on the stand and that they need more proof of Nico's sexuality than the "Bend and Snap". Following on the heels of this, Callahan says that if Elle's wrong, "we look desperate ''and'' homophobic!"

** Warner rubbishes Elle's argument about Nico's testimony being discredited because he's gay, but he has a point that they can't just out someone on the stand and that they need more proof than the "Bend and Snap". Following on the heels of this, Callahan says that if Elle's wrong, "we look desperate ''and'' homophobic!"