"Legally Blonde" by Nottingham University Medics.

Nottingham Arts Theatre.

"Legally Blonde" is the story of Elle Woods who is completely smitten with Warner Huntington III when he tells her that she is dumped as he is off to Harvard to study law, and feels that he needs someone more "serious". Elle decides to show him that she is serious by enrolling in Harvard to win him back, unbeknown to her, he has already found his someone serious in Vivienne.

Elle discovers that she has a flair for this legal thing by using unconventional methods and manages to win the day by winning the murder case and freeing the accused, the fitness queen Brooke Wyndham.

In the interim she finds herself a new love, an unlikely ally and an enemy in Professor Callaghan when she turns the tables on him and shows what a slimeball he really is.

Playing the iconic Elle is Ciara Heron. She looks the part, in her signature pink, and has that Elle Woods sound down to a tee. One small stumble over the words near the start, but I bet that is all down to first night nerves, because after that the nerves seemed to vanish and everything was in the pink.

Warner Huntington III is played by Pauli Tritter. Via Paul I saw a slightly different Warner at the start, because when the pair get together for what Elle is expecting to be a proposal, Warner seems to be slightly on edge and not a bit like the over confident Warner that I have seen in past productions; possible because he has to deliver bad news to Elle. Either that or Pauli also had a few nerves himself, which is completely believable. As with Ciara, after that scene, the old arrogant Warner was back to form.

Emmett Forrest, who Elle falls in love with, was played by Kevin Farrell. Emmett is one of those nerdy characters that you soon grow to love for his nerdiness, and Kevin delivered exactly what I expected from Emmett. He also delivered a fine musical theatre voice which grew stronger as the character grew.

Eva Burke was so good as Paulette the hairdresser. Again really strong vocals and lovely comic timing. This is a lovely warm character, the sort of friend that everyone needs and Eva brings that warmth out as Paulette's confidence builds, thanks to Elle and her Greek chorus, and of course the "Bend And Snap".

Paulette's ideal man is an Irishman and when she finds out that her new UPS delivery man is not only an absolute hunk, but is Irish as well..... Kyle, the UPS man is played with great confidence by Ian Alabaster. A nice, almost arrogant twist to the introduction of this character as Ian shows off his flexibility on stage - more than that I shall not expand on but his package ends up on the floor!! This is a brilliant comedy role for Ian, and also doubles up as another comedy part in Grandmaster Chad.

The slimy Professor Callaghan was played by Sam Thompson. For some reason I thought that I had seen Sam somewhere on stage before, or maybe that should be that I should have seen Sam on stage somewhere before. Sam is a very strong character actor who brings out the powerful in Callaghan. There is a confidence in Sam's acting and that makes this character fearful for not only the current legal interns, but makes the audience sit up in their seats. He also adds bite to the song "Dead In The Water", almost as if he is the shark, circling for his prey and stamping his authority. Sam's performance could possibly be one of the best local theatre versions of Callaghan that I have seen, and with that voice, this young man could be destined for even more stage work.

Sarah-Jayne Byrne plays Vivienne, Warner's new "serious" girlfriend. Here's another character who gets to turn the audience's opinion of them, as when we first see her, she is not such a nice character, throwing Elle under the legal bus in front of the almighty Callaghan. And then Vivienne starts to see things, and Elle quite differently, and the character and attitude changes. Some very strong vocals from Sarah-Jayne in this show.

Brooke Wyndham, the fitness queen is played brilliantly by Ellie De Souza, and she certainly looks the part of a fitness queen! One of my favourite parts of this musical is the scene where we are introduced to this character. She is on a video that the legal team are watching and the song they perform to is called "Whipped Into Shape". On all other productions this is a scene where everyone is skipping with Brooke leading them. Unfortunately there was only Brooke with a skipping rope and everyone else were miming skipping, and that slightly took the image and impressive skipping choreography impact down a bit.

Elle's best friends are Margot (Freya McCleary), Serena (Evie Cook) and Pilar (Emily Lindridge). This trio make up Elle's "Greek chorus" and are great fun whenever they explode on stage. I am sure that their energy alone are also responsible for charging the batteries in their battery mic packs, they are almost as full on as a Duracell bunny, and I loved that fun and energy.

Francesca Napolitano plays Kate, the Delta Nu sorority sister, the smart and studious one, who helps Elle pass her legal exams.

Enid Hoopes is another Harvard intern who is on the case in Callaghan's team, and a lovely comedy part for Georgia Hancock.    

 Esme Beaccham plays Chutney - who would name their child Chutney? - Wyndham, Brooke's step daughter. Esme doubles up as Whitney, who is Vivienne's best friend.

Seif Alshunnar plays Nikos, the man in the dock who works for Brooke as a pool man. A minor comic role where we have to decide if he is gay or European. The truth is out, quite literally when his best friend, or is that boyfriend Carlos, played by Sam Varley, a scene they both steal and attracts a massive round of applause for both.

Seif doubles up on roles playing Sundeep Padamadan, one of the new Harvard interns.

Sam likewise doubles his role playing Dewey, Paulette's ex. In this role he looks completely different to the role of Carlos.

Jojo Liney plays Aaron Schultz, another Harvard law student and multi millionaire.

Elle's Mom is played by Amelia Beddow and Charlie Dennett plays Elle's Dad.

The Shop Owner and The Judge is played by Jerushah Joseph-Jeffrey.

Henry Manwaring also doubles up on roles, two very different roles as he plays Professor Pforzheimer, one of the trio who has to decide whether Elle is to be admitted to Harvard, as well as playing Rufus, Paulette's bulldog.

Luke Stringer plays Professor Lowell, another third of the trio, as well as Bruiser, Elle's chihuahua!

Completing the trio of Professors is someone who received a ear shattering response to his entrance on stage, Professor Randall as Professor Winthrop.

The choreography is energetic and the featured dancers Lauren Abbi-Wood, Giulia Cianci, Abbie Hjorring, Riya Kewalani, Ella McLeod and Charlotte Parvin gave absolutely everything and smiled all the way through.

The Sorority Girls Ensemble consist of Erin Burns, Isabel Hawthorn, Smilla Heaney, Phoebe Ingram, Madeleine Lynchy, Niamh Masterson, Karmena Moriarty, Jessica Rimmington and Emily Waring.

The Harvard Students Ensemble consist of George Baglin, Lydia Berry, Wiktoria Braszkewicz, Anna Holland, Emma Hurdle, Ben Jones, Catherine Magennis, Amelie Parish, Isobel Temple and Eve Yellop.

The production team are Emily Lindridge (Director), Eva Burke (Choreography), Ryan Latham (Musical Director) and Lydia Berry (Vocal Director).

This fifteen piece band is another bonus for seeing this production because they sound absolutely brilliant; so much power. The soundtrack has some brilliant earworms that will have them whizzing around your head for days afterwards. Songs like "OmiGod U Guys", "What you Want", "Blood In The Water", "Positive", "Chip On My Shoulder", "Whipped Into Shape", "Bend And Snap", "Gay Or European" and of course the title song are infectiously catchy.

Lydia says in the write up in the programme that the cast comprised of people with a range of musical singing experience, and to the trained ear, you could tell the actors who didn't have the full vocal range of talents, but note I say "to the trained ear" and an ear that has heard a lot of musical theatre vocals. I don't think the average musical theatre audience member would have noticed so much, because not one of these medical students belied their ability to belt out a tune. Every one highlighted Lydia's talents as a Vocal Director.

A wonderfully clear sound and a great lighting design by the Arts Theatre experts Evie Webster and George Wilson.

The costumes are all excellent with some fun additions of open Hawaiian shirts and shorts to contrast with the very smart suits, and a lot of thought and sourcing has gone into getting the costumes just right.

This isn't the best version of the musical I've ever seen, but then again, I've seen a lot, but it's still as entertaining, it's funny, it's warm and is great entertainment. There were just a few things that I would have changed, and they're not major things either, just things that niggle me in plays and can easily be resolved for realism. 

In the scene where we meet Callaghan and the interns are taking notes, only some of the interns had writing implements and others just pretended to note things down with their fingers on note pads. All that were needed were a few pens.

In all of the scenes where drinks were involved, the cast were shown drinking out of empty bottles and cups - this is one of my most common niggles. All that is needed to resolve this would be to have water, or coloured water in the bottles.

I've already mentioned the scene with the skipping where Brooke's crew were skipping without skipping ropes.

With all that in mind, "Legally Blonde" is an incredibly fun piece of theatre. It's camp and it's full on, and the Medics make sure that they give very good value for money with this show. It also shows that the University of Nottingham Medics are a talented group of people, and if their bedside manner is half as good as their musical theatre skills, I think the future of the health service is in excellent jazz hands. 

One more thing that I will mention is that the theatre was absolutely rammed on opening night (Thursday) and the energy, appreciation and enthusiasm from the audience to the stage was like a tsunami of love for this fantastic cast.

"Legally Blonde" is at the Nottingham Arts Theatre until Saturday 1 March.