Nostalgia has a tendency to color the past in a rosy tint. That’s why sometimes when we watch movies and TV shows that we loved years ago, it doesn’t hit quite the same. Maybe the characters feel a little off or those iconic moments you can still quote aren’t as impactful, but either way the unstoppable hands of time can ravage that which we cherish.
But sometimes, the things we enjoy are just as great as we remember. That’s certainly the case for Legally Blonde, the 2001 comedy following Elle Woods, who gets into law school to be with a man who totally doesn’t deserve her.
Played by early-career Reese Witherspoon, Woods is introduced as the stereotypical “dumb blonde” character who’s dressed all in pink, has a chihuahua (Bruiser Woods) in her purse and likes giggling about boys with her sorority sisters. However, the fashion merchandising major quickly dispels others’ notions about her perceived lack of intelligence when she’s accepted to Harvard Law School via sheer willpower.
Still, far from the traditional attorney archetype, Woods struggles to be respected by her peers and even some of her mentors. Yet, when she’s one of four students chosen to help a professor defend a murder suspect, her beauty insight — I mean, seriously, who doesn’t know the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance? — is what inevitably proves the defendant’s innocence.
“She takes those LSATs and she gets a 179 and I think some people think that’s like the fanciful part of the show. But to me, that’s the realest part of the show — the idea that when you push yourself, you can do anything, regardless of how people might perceive you,” says Elizabeth Theriault, the actress playing Elle Woods in Spokane Civic Theatre’s upcoming Legally Blonde musical.
“I’m a young woman working in finance, so I really relate to the idea of being so conscious of how you’re being perceived, both physically, and the way you speak or articulate. And it’s not just that she wears pink. It’s also that she struggles to get people to take her seriously.
The Civic begins its 78th season in Spokane on Sept. 19 with the fun, high-energy Legally Blonde musical, which debuted in 2007. The show tells practically the same story as the film, only through new ear-catching songs, such as “Omigod You Guys,” “Bend and Snap,” and “There! Right There!”
“I actually think that’s the reason the Legally Blonde musical has lasted so long,” Theriault says. “It’s one of the best movie-to-musical adaptations that there ever has been because it’s 99% the same and I actually will die on that hill.”
Theriault has been performing since she was 4 years old and, like most younger siblings, she did it to follow her older sister’s footsteps. Once she realized she loved the stage, and not just whatever her sister was doing, she threw herself into the craft. When Theriault was 17, she starred in a local adaptation of Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar and two years later at the Civic she led the angsty teen drama Spring Awakening as Wendla.
“I think what’s kept me going in the theater is humanity. There’s always something so human and so relatable about the shows that I’ve chosen to do,” she says. “I know my life path now, you know I work in finance, so it’s a very different lifestyle. I live kind of a Hannah Montana double life.”
“To me, that’s the realest part of the show — the idea that when you push yourself, you can do anything.”
In the last few years, Theriault has really popped off in the Inland Northwest’s theater scene, particularly in some more serious shows. In 2023, she played the titular character in Bright Comet Theatre’s Lizzie, a rock musical retelling of the 1892 Borden murders.
Afterwards she landed a “longtime dream role” in the Civic’s 2024 Carousel. And to kick off 2025, she starred in Rent at Coeur d’Alene’s Lake City Playhouse. Theriault was Maureen, one of the show’s main characters, played in the original Broadway production by vocal powerhouse Idina Menzel.
“I’ve had the pleasure of having done some really amazing provocative shows, and that’s more my lane, so Legally Blonde is just so much fun,” she says. “It’s nostalgic for me. I grew up watching that movie with my older sisters, but it’s still so prevalent in pop culture. I mean, it seems like every other day a Tiktok is going viral from it.”
With so many iconic lines — “You look like the Fourth of July,” “What, like it’s hard?,” or “Courtney, take your break” — the source material’s permanent spot in the cultural zeitgeist is undeniable.
“I think every girl in the world has probably dreamed of being Elle Woods at some point,” Theriault says.
Beyond the movie’s virality, Theriault was drawn to the show for the powerful message that it sends to women, especially young women. After Woods realizes that she doesn’t need to bend her own life around that of a man who wouldn’t do the same for her, Theriault says the message is clear:
“You have to be on your own side and you have to always choose yourself. It can’t always just be about a boy.”
Legally Blonde • Sept. 19-Oct. 12, Wed-Sat at 7:30 pm, Sun at 2 pm • $20-$45 • Spokane Civic Theatre • 1020 N. Howard St.