The Gryphon Gazette

By Claire Z. 26’

The 2024 Upper School Musical was a production of Legally Blonde. Premiering in  2007, the Original musical with music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin debuted at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theater. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Legally Blonde, it is a 2001 film based on a Novel by Amanda Brown and follows the life of a sorority girl at UCLA who is constantly looked down on for being “too blonde”. By studying hard and filling out her applications in various unconventional ways, she finds her way at Harvard Law School with the best of the best. Legally Blonde, starring favorites such as Reese Witherspoon and Jenifer Coolidge, is definitely up at the top of the list of staples in rom-com culture and follows specific themes of female empowerment, independence and integrity. And indeed, that is the message this musical has brought to our Crystal Community. In roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes, and over the span of four fulfilling days, our very own, and incredibly talented, Crystal students had taken the audience for a whirlwind of catchy songs, amazing acting and even better dancing and vocals. But, all involved in the musical did much more behind just performing their hearts out. Rehearsals started. Rehearsals started on January 10th, and hours, days, weeks of dedication is how it got to be such an incredible performance. When asked about his experience on set, Adam Bartov 26’, who played Enrique in the musical, stated “rehearsals were rigorous but fulfilling. However hard work always pays off in the end. The musical was successful and I am so glad to have contributed to the Crystal Community.” Furthermore, Bartov 26’ urges upcoming freshman, and returning upper school students, to take part in future Crystal theater and arts programs productions, whether that be on the stage, or behind the scenes, stating “it is not only a fun learning experience that brings joy to the audience, but forms relationships that I will treasure through my entire highschool experience and likely the rest of my life.”

However, being a lead actor/actress is not the only contribution to the musical. Crü members worked behind the scenes to truly pull the entire show together in perfection. Lucas Alvarado 26’ states that his favorite memory from Legally Blonde was “the cast and Crü party where people said really nice things about the seniors. Through this musical, I learned more about how to manage leadership roles in crü and communicate with the director. Although we struggled with some set pieces connected by magnets, because they kept falling down and some of the actors lost their voices during Tech Week, this was probably the most fun show I’ve been  involved in, because we had a very tightly knit group.” When asked about his recommendations for incoming freshmen, or returning upper school students, Alverado states, “I definitely recommend participating in a production. It’s a great experience to have, and you always make new friends. Tech week was probably the best part of my year so far!”

An anonymous viewer states that watching the show was an “enlightening experience. Not only did it offer funny deliveries and concepts, but the talent and dedication of everyone involved was absolutely shown and highly impressive. My favorite scenes were definitely the ones from inside the courtroom. I can’t wait to see what is in store for next year.”

In conclusion, Crystal’s performing arts program never fails to impress. From singing, to dancing, and countless hours put into remembering lines to a tee, our stars gave their all and we were not disappointed. All the talent, hard work and enthusiasm was displayed on that stage to give us the best show possible and we could not be more proud and excited for the coming years.