Blonde bombshell turns legal eagle

Two former soap stars — EastEnders’ Rita Simons and Coronation Street’s Bill Ward — star in a major new touring production of the hit West End show, Legally Blonde The Musical.

The hit show is at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Tuesday, May 15 to Saturday, May 19.

Legally Blonde The Musical is described as an all singing, all-dancing romantic comedy, and a fun-filled, feel-good pink fest.

College sweetheart and homecoming queen Elle Woods doesn’t take no for an answer. When her boyfriend dumps her for someone more serious, Elle puts down the credit card, hits the books and heads for Harvard Law School.

Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style.

Based on the film of the same name starring Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde The Musical earned seven Tony nominations during its Broadway run. In the UK it was nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, winning three, including best new musical.

Taking the title role is Lucie Jones, who represented the UK in the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing with 111 points in eighth place. She also appeared in the 2009 series of The X Factor.

Most recently, she played Maureen in the 20th anniversary UK tour of Rent.

Bill Ward, who plays Professor Callahan, was builder Charlie Stubbs in Coronation Street for more than 300 episodes before spending three years in another soap, Emmerdale, playing farmer James Barton.

Rita Simons (Paulette Bonafonte) is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell in BBC’s EastEnders, for which she has won numerous awards, including most popular newcomer at the National Television Awards.

Legally Blonde The Musical also has two dogs in the cast, a Chihuahua called Bruiser and another called Rufus, a big, brutish, dog.

In Nottingham, Horace, a three-year-old bulldog from Sutton-in-Ashfield, who won the role following open auditions earlier in the year, will play Rufus.

Legally Blonde The Musical features music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe.