The lights shine on actors and actresses with fitness attire on center stage. Music begins playing and the performers use jump ropes to dance as one woman sings. One of the characters marches across the stage and yells out, “I hate you Brooke. And I love you for it.”

Aubrey Schultz is a junior majoring in musical theatre and plays the protagonist Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority girl who enrolls in law school to win back her ex-boyfriend.

According to Schultz, students are promised a show that will have them laughing and amused.  The show is fast paced, epic and involves bits of humor.

“There’s giant dance numbers, costumes and huge things,” she said. “It’s not like something you have to think so much about, it’s fun.”

Schultz said there is a core message through the program which consists of working hard for the things you want and staying true to who you are. She said college students should apply that inspirational message to their own lives.

Liz Bailey, a junior majoring in theatre with a specialization in design and production, is the stage manager for “Legally Blonde.”  She said scripts were handed out when winter quarter began, and that was the time when everybody started memorizing lines and listening to the tunes.    

The musical is based off the novel and successful movie “Legally Blonde.” The production follows the journey of cheerful and fashion-forward UCLA sorority girl Elle Woods. Her life becomes tipped over after Wood’s boyfriend, Warren Huntington III, dumps her because she’s not serious enough for him.

Rachael Gold is a senior majoring in musical theater and plays Brooke Wyndham. Gold said this production isn’t very similar to the film.

“It has all the same characters but a lot of singular ideas are blown up into these big songs,” she said. “The bend and snap is in the movie and sort of a scene where Elle teaches people how to bend and snap but here, it’s a whole theme of the second act.”

“Legally Blonde” is being performed in the McConnell Hall auditorium rather than the Milo Smith Tower Theatre.

According to Gold, one advantage of doing the show in the McConnell auditorium in comparison to the Milo Smith Tower Theatre is the setup of the stage. She said there’s at least a billion quick changes that people won’t be able to see and would be harder to pull off if the play were being shown in the other theatre.

Bailey said the show has evolved and changed like many productions do, which is why she enjoys doing live theatre.

Bailey said this growth, art and other glamorous things is the reason she prefers theatre over of film. She said the cast began with an idea of something and then worked and cared for it to see the results.  

Schultz said there’s a variety of things she’s excited about with the musical, but one aspect was the different outfits. She said that a piece of Elle Woods is that she studied fashion merchandise and is so into the clothes she puts on.   

“Part of what’s been so much fun is she has 14 different outfits through the show, and each outfit is kind of crazy,” Schultz said. “There’s no simple outfit for Elle Woods.”

The Central Theatre Ensemble’s “Legally Blonde” the musical is playing at the McConnell Hall auditorium on May 17, 18, and 19 at 7:30 p.m. and May 20 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be bought at http://www.cwu.edu/theatre/tickets. Prices range from $8 to $20.