Role Of Ensemble In Musicals: Chorus And Ensemble In Legally Blonde

Classical musicals use choruses similar to the Greek Chorus. Due to large amphitheaters the ancient Greeks would have to have a large chorus of up to 50 people to fill the space with sound. During the Golden Age of musicals this was very much the case in terms of theatre size. To ensure that even the people in the furthest back seats could hear, large numbers of chorus performers would be hired and usually split into dancers and singers to fill the sound, as singing and dancing at the same time without microphones would distort and muffle the sound. At the beginning of the Golden Age in the 1940s a lot of social aspects affected the musicals that came out. From World War II ending, to women’s roles changing in society, ‘Americans began to witness the issues of their time on stage’ (Robertson, A. 2016). Guys and Dolls (1950) was one of the musicals from this era, and when watching this show a scene in which the chorus stood out to me was at the end of ‘A Bushel and A Peck’ as the girls run off stage waving to the audience. Though they didn’t make any impact on the storyline during the song, when they ran off I was excited for what was coming. This made me feel like chorus members in classical musicals such as this, are similar to cheerleaders with sports teams. They come in-between the main attraction to support the lead roles, without having a part in the success of the team, or in this case success of the lead characters. The first real turning point for choruses in classical musicals was West Side Story (1957). This was the first of the Golden Age musicals where chorus and ensemble were combined. Requiring the full triple threat from its performers meant that they could be more involved in the story like an ensemble, whilst chorus members were still used in the background for volume and impact as was still needed with bigger theatres. I feel as though West Side Story not only paved the way for other ensemble-based musicals in the years following closely behind, but also for far modern musicals such as Legally Blonde (2007).

Much like West Side Story, Legally Blonde also mixes both chorus and ensemble in this modern show. Most of the show is ensemble-based, with songs like ‘What You Want’ using the ensemble to guide us through the story from Elle’s breakup to her acceptance into Harvard Law. Nevertheless some songs such as ‘Whipped Into Shape’ take a chorus approach and are just in those pieces to fill space. Furthermore Elle has her own Greek Chorus which has been modernised to involve themselves in the storyline rather than just commenting on the action. To get a professional opinion on the importance of ensemble in this show, I private messaged Jerry Mitchell the choreographer of the original Legally Blonde cast. He said, “The ensemble is essential to any musical. They support the story and the community a show is representing. The Delta Nus. Remind Elle from whence she came as well as how she needs to form in order to become her true self.” (Mitchell, J. 2020). I think his comment about community is extremely important especially in this instance. Without the Delta Nu sisters, Elle would not have been able to become who she needed to be to complete her story and I personally felt when playing one of the Delta Nu sisters our bubbly presence on stage made the audience want to be Elle’s best friend too which is that community feeling Jerry says the ensemble brings to the stage. This contrasts strongly with a contemporary musical such as Les Misérables. Whilst Les Misérables has a large number of chorus performers that do enhance each scene by portraying their emotions, if that large chorus were to be removed it would not affect the actual storyline. Whereas removing the ensemble from Legally Blonde would mean Elle couldn’t reach her destiny. One modern ensemble which I really think shows how we have evolved from needing masses of performers on stage is The Book of Mormon (2011). This ensemble is extremely small and throughout the show you see the same people multi-roling and moving the story along. Even in theatres of 1500 seats plus, they still manage to create as big of an impact as the larger casts we had during the Golden Age.

The reason this intrigued me so much is because I want to see where we will evolve too next with ensembles. I believe that as we have adapted from a chorus to an ensemble the demands on performers have become harder due to more responsibility within these musicals, with some even claiming that to stand out nowadays you should ‘be a quadruple or even quintuple-threat performer’ (Wilson, J. 2015). Others however disagree, saying ‘Actors were better trained in the past. Miking enables people to get away with giving less than their all’ (Munderloh, O. 1995). Though these comments are years apart, technology has only continued to advance and help us in theatre so I wonder if Munderloh could be right that we are not doing our best because we are spreading ourselves over so many disciplines? What I think would be interesting to see in the future is if anyone tries to push the boundaries by creating a performance that requires less of the modern technology, and more of the performer’s natural talents on and off stage.