Blonde. It’s a hair colour that conjures up images of beauty, privilege, air-headedness. Throughout history, famously fair women, from Marilyn Monroe to Paris Hilton, have been slapped with those stereotypes. So prevalent was this cliché at the turn of the millennium that up stepped Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon’s Malibu Barbie turned Harvard Law grad heroine to show that blondes can be intelligent too, actually, in 2001’s classic comedy Legally Blonde. But for the new musical production of the film in London this summer, blonde is more a state of mind. For Courtney Bowman, who’ll be stepping into Elle’s pink Louboutins in the lead role, it’s not just a hair colour but “a metaphor for anything that you felt judged [by]”. She yelps. “Oh my goodness, that’s the headline there, isn’t it? Done one for ya!”
This new production of Legally Blonde: The Musical approaches blonde-ness from a fresh angle. It asks some pretty big questions: how do the associations with blonde, a hair colour traditionally linked with whiteness, change when the actor in question isn’t white? Bowman grew up in Lincolnshire and is dual-heritage: her dad hails from Cape Verde, while her mum is white and Bowman describes herself as Afro-European. When it was announced that Legally Blonde – a hugely popular 2007 musical, based on the film phenom – was being updated and revived a decade after it last played in London, she was as excited as any fan. When the news that directing prodigy Lucy Moss would be at the helm broke, it only upped the ante. And when it was revealed that Bowman herself would play Elle, she knew she was making “musical theatre history”. She shudders. “Oh, that’s so gross, I can’t believe I just said that.”
