We’ve had successful musical versions of Legally Blonde and Mean Girls, so it was an inevitability that the ravening maws of the great film-to-stage sausage machine would alight upon these movies’ esteemed predecessor in the girl-power, high-school, shopping-fest genre.
Clueless the movie celebrates – gulp – its 30th birthday this year, but its protagonists are forever young and wrinkle-free, the posturing teenage alpha males and females of Beverly High, Los Angeles.
Leader of the pack is Cher Horowitz (Emma Flynn), the role immortalised on film by the gloriously perky Alicia Silverstone, with her aura of wise mischievousness. Cher, like Jane Austen’s Emma Wodehouse upon whom she is playfully modelled, is “handsome, clever, and rich” with a penchant for matchmaking her peers – and yellow plaid miniskirts.
Emma Flynn as Cher and Keelan McAuley as ex-stepbrother and love interest Josh (Photo: Pamela Raith Photography)There’s not an enormous amount of conflict in the plot – Cher needs to learn to eat a good helping of (low-calorie) humble pie – but Silverstone’s effervescence carried this off on screen. In a live-action medium, the narrative seems somewhat stretched, resulting in a try-hard show that has only a limited effect.
Amy Heckerling, the film’s writer-director, has written the script, so there are no surprises or deviations there. The music is by that fine singer-songwriter KT Tunstall – a handful of pleasant and predominantly up-tempo numbers with lyrics by Glenn Slater (known for Sister Act and School of Rock musicals). It’s more memorable than the score for Legally Blonde, while lacking the whipcrack sharpness of the Mean Girls songs.
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“Human Barbies” is a witty ditty sung by Cher’s ex-stepbrother Josh (Paul Rudd in the film, here played by Keelan McAuley), as he details with relish her dismissive treatment of other people. That former familial connection – however brief – between our central romantic pair still sits just a little awkwardly with me.
Flynn is never less than likeable as she whirls through Cher’s dizzying array of quick-change costumes, while McAuley convincingly shifts from dismissive to something far more agreeable. Once again, the most nuanced character is new girl Tai (Romona Lewis-Malley), whom Cher decides is destined for social high-achieving, whether she wants it or not.
Where Rachel Kavanaugh’s production scores most highly is in its very peppy dancing; much kudos to choreographer Kelly Devine. Whereas that other recent musical The Devil Wears Prada hardly bothered with any movement, here the stage bursts with youthful vitality – just like Cher and her classmates. There is a glorious section of old-style swing dancing, in which our heroine participates with gusto.
“As if!” is Cher’s favourite expression and it is deployed liberally in penultimate number “Reasonable Doubts”, a moment of rare cloud in the customarily sunny LA sky. This is by no means a show for the ages, but it makes for a pleasant enough evening out.
To 27 Sept, Trafalgar Theatre, London (cluelessonstage.com)
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