Legally Blonde Lucie set to win our hearts on stage in Sheffield

When sorority sister Elle Woods is dumped by her boyfriend Warner Huntingdon III for a more serious girlfriend, she puts down the credit cards and picks up the books. With her faithful dog by her side, she bags herself a place at the prestigious Harvard Law School to try and win him back. But along the way she discovers a lot about herself and makes new friends and questions if her relationship with Warner is what makes her happy after all.She also finds that her unique outlook on the world helps her prove her worth in the first real-life legal case she becomes involved with.Pink saves the day again!Starring award-winning actress Rita Simons (EastEnders) as Paulette Bonafonte, Bill Ward (Emmerdale) as Professor Callaghan and Lucie Jones (We Will Rock You) as Elle Woods, this smash hit Broadway and West End Musical is full of glamour, hilarity and plenty of big numbers.Also starring in this production is Ned, a bulldog from Sheffield who will walk the boards for the first time as Paulette’s four-pawed friend, after being selected as top dog in auditions earlier this year.The show is, of course, based on the hit 2001 Hollywood comedy that starred Reese Witherspoon.Originally premiering on Broadway in 2007, Legally Blonde the Musical is based on the 2001 novel by Amanda Brown that also inspired the film.The musical, which features more than a dozen original songs, has since been seen in theatres around the world.Lucie Jones, who shot to fame when she appeared on The X Factor in 2009, controversially losing out to Jedward in the fifth week of the series.She was last on stage at the Lyceum in Sheffield only a few months ago in the musical The Wedding Singer.Lucie was only on that tour for a short while because she was planning her own wedding in Wales to fellow competitor Ethan Boroian, now working as a chef, at the show’s boot camp.The couple were wed last month in the village of Miskin, close to where Lucie grew up.She also scored the highest points – 111 – of a UK competitor for several years in the Eurovision Song contest in May with her performance of Never Give Up On You. Fans blamed European feeling over Brexit for the poor showing of her strong performance in the voting. Rita Simons is best known for her long-running role as the feisty Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders.She starredi n the show for a decade before her character was killed off on New Year’s Day.She admitted that the scenes on the show where she drowns, along with older sister Ronnie (Samantha Womack), on her wedding night were very painful to watch. Her Legally Blonde character Paulette is a hairdresser and Rita’s husband Theo runs an upmarket saloin in London.She is also the niece of The Apprentice star Sir Alan Sugar.Rita’s co-star Bill Ward has been killed off twice in soaps, in both Emmerdale and in Coronation Street.