The video begins with an enthusiastic preteen taking to the stage in a jewel-colored V-neck to a contagious pop beat, inexplicably holding a jumbo-sized pencil. “Dear Elle, he`s a lucky guy / I`m going to cry / I`ve had tears coming out of my nose,” she exclaims before being immediately followed by a crowd of other teenage girls, also dressed in jewel-colored T-shirts, all grabbing the comically oversized pencil and lyrics of Legally Blonde: The opening number of the smash musical. “Omigod You Guys” with a different volume, tone and enthusiasm. After stumbling over what`s out of the choreography — most of the time, circling and standing in line — a girl with a blonde wig and bright pink cardigan comes out and plays Elle Woods, Reese Witherspoon`s character. #stitch with @jammin_wben, I hope it finds the right people. #courtneytakeyourbreak #omigodyouguys #legallyblonde #acting #drama #fyp really hope it reaches the right audience#theatrekid #legallyblonde #legallyblondethemusical #musicaltheatre #gender #nonbinary #fyp If you`re in the world of Twitter or TikTok musical theater, you`re probably familiar with the clip above. Over the years, it has been recorded on and off YouTube and has gone viral under various titles: like “Illegal Blonde: For Your Consideration” or “Omigod You Guys Feat”. All-Star-Cast” or simply as “WORST Legal Blonde Musical Production EVER!”. Part of the reason Red Room Studios` production of Legally Blonde resonated so strongly with former theater kids on the internet — and why SNL parody also resonated — is that it evoked a very specific feeling in the life of a former theater kid: the unwavering belief that every production you did was the best and most important.

what you would do for the rest of your life. even if in retrospect (and YouTube images) later prove that this was not the case. “With any former theater kid, there`s always that joy and also that terrifying aspect of watching tapes of yourself when you were in college as a Hot Box Girl in Guys and Dolls, and it`s like, `Who allowed us to do this? ” says Bloomquist. But it`s also a pleasure to look back. I would be interested in a similar retrospective with this horrible school production of Heathers. I will never recover from how Principal Heather began to apologize to the public. Iconic. After a saleswoman tries to trick Elle into buying “last year`s dress at this year`s prices,” the first enthusiastic teen, now inexplicably dressed in a lab coat, comes out to apologize: “She Woods, sorry for our mistake/Courtney, take your break, ignore her, she`s not okay,” she sings. before giving Her another garment.

“It`s a gift from me to El-llle,” she roars into perhaps one of the most spectacular failed belts of all time. At least where I am, it`s not uncommon for some children`s theaters, especially if it`s something like a summer camp where the kids are there for a full day of 8-hour rehearsal and put on the whole show in a month. In this case, due to payment, everyone is assured of a role in the show. I`ve also seen other groups that don`t have an entrance fee that charge a fee (not as high as $600) for costumes to cover rental costs. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original film Legally Blonde, Rolling Stone reunited with the original cast and crew behind perhaps the most infamous YouTube amateur musical theater clip of all time. Many were thrilled to talk about what it was like to go viral for a terrifying childhood memory; others, not so much. Unlike most internet ephemera, which reaches a certain level of virality, most of the young stars in the production of Legally Blonde`s Red Room have remained relatively anonymous, with the exception of YouTube`s occasional commentator, amateur detectives slipping into their DMs to verify their identities or request a copy of the tape. Some, like Alex and Chelmak, still struggle to get the internet`s attention for the wrong reasons. Others began to get involved.

“At first I was so embarrassed and tried to hide it,” Morris admits. “But I decided not to hide it because it keeps popping up and it`s become a fun anecdote to tell at parties or dates.” My office appointed our sporadically helpful printer/copier Courtney so we could shout “Courtney, take your break” if he misbehaved. On behalf of the young actors in the production, Chelmak tried to protect them from online abuse. “I was so close to these kids,” she says. “Discovering that they were ridiculed at this level was my heart. If I was the one ridiculed, I would get involved and own it, but I don`t. She`s a 12-year-old girl being laughed at. But she was also personally hurt when she saw her work cited as an example of one of the worst musical theatre productions of all time. “I was sad, ashamed, embarrassed, I thought it was funny, I didn`t think it was funny,” she says. “A lot of people think it`s cool. I don`t.

For months, the cast of Legally Blonde rehearsed with a choreographer (a local Zumba instructor) and Gardiner as director. The children brought their own costumes from the house and learned the harmonies from an educational CD. “We didn`t get notes, so the harmonies don`t really appear or work,” says Alaria Northard-Lessup, a daughter of Delta Nu. “A few rehearsals before the show, they realized that no one had chosen a note in the chorus. They tried to get us to do it, but it was too late. As you can see in the video, the blockage is also heavy. “Most of us had no dance experience, so we walked around in training rather than actual choreography,” Holloway recalls. And while the clip gained such notoriety because, yes, it`s objectively bad, it goes beyond the typical status of terrifying content by offering nostalgia to viewers with fond memories of involvement in amateur musical theater. “You watch these videos and hear a shy pit band or a phrase that half-collapses, but at the end of the day, you still see the passion of these artists and kids,” says Ryan Bloomquist, who created the “Courtney Take Your Break” meme when he created a compilation of solo from various amateur productions.