blonde and blonder; Heather Hach writes, Nell Benjamin composes, and Laura Bell Bundy stars in this month's Legally Blonde.(Theater review)

Byline: Adam Green

On a sunny New York afternoon, three great-looking blondes in little leg-baring numbers and high heels-models? stewardesses? foreign-exchange students?-are striding arm in arm through Madison Square Park, leaving a line of swiveling male heads in their wake. "So," a middle-aged guy asks them, "where are you girls from-Sweden?" Nope: Broadway. Laura Bell Bundy, Heather Hach, and Nell Benjamin are, respectively, the star, the author, and the cosongwriter of Legally Blonde, a winningly hyperkinetic new musical based on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon movie about a towheaded sorority girl named Elle Woods, who goes to Harvard Law School and acquires smarts and self-esteem to go with her pink sweater sets and Jimmy Choos. Staged by first-time director and Hairspray choreographer Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde could be the surprise hit of the season.

In between trying on outfits in a wardrobe trailer and getting ready to be photographed for a magazine whose name is invoked in the show with reverence, the three women discuss their particular affinity with their heroine. "I'm a blonde who likes to shop, wear nice shoes, and get my hair done, so I've been underestimated plenty in my life," Hach, a former journalist who co-wrote the screenplay for the remake of Freaky Friday, says. "It used to bother me, but then I started to think, Fine, go ahead and write me off as harmless-you'll see."

Benjamin, whose previous work ...