By Cooper Hofmann & Hilda Rico Valdez

This musical is a very powerful reminder that people are not just one thing.

Granada Hills Charter’s (GHC) drama program presented their annual spring musical March 12-16. The musical greatly highlighted the student’s actors’ performances as they fully embodied their characters with excitement and passion. Matter-of-factly, musicals take an extreme amount of effort to put together, and the cast push themselves to try to balance practices, schoolwork, choreography, and everything in between. It would only be fair to spotlight the fantastic students sacrificing their time to put on an amazing showing of Laurene O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin’s “Legally Blonde.”

Junior Natalie Irby played Elle Woods, a UCLA Fashion major who transfers to Harvard’s Law program in an effort to chase true love. Irby was spectacular in the role, made even more notable by the fact that this is her first time performing in a musical. Getting the lead role like that obviously comes with a lot of pressure, but Irby handled it in true Elle Woods fashion, with a smile and a can-do attitude.

“The hardest part is the hours you’re at school,” Irby said. “We stayed until 9:00 p.m. on some days when we were rehearsing singing, choreography, and acting. But you push through by thinking about the outcome and the high quality show you’re going to get out of it.”

Senior Nathan-Alexander Manriquez played Warner Huntington III, Elle Woods’ ex-boyfriend. As a fan of the movie, Manriquez was ecstatic when the drama program announced it as this year’s musical. He believes that his character, Warner, challenged him in expanding his acting abilities.

“It was interesting to play Warner, especially as I am someone who is the opposite of him. He’s someone who is very egotistical and I like to think of others, ” Manriquez said. “Because of this it was very interesting to play him. The musical gave me an opportunity to live a childhood dream of mine.”

Senior Ricky Trujillo took his last bow with “Legally Blonde.” After playing Shrek last year, Trujillo’s passion for playing the humble Emmet Richmond is palpable. Donning a shabby jacket and an earnest charm, Trujillo’s Emmet lights up the stage. But what’s more notable is how his theater experience elevates his performance, and his attitude for the musical.

“After being in every production held here for the past four years, I’m ready to take the stage one final time,” Trujillo said. “I don’t know what’ll happen after high school, but I’m happy to end my career at Granada on Legally Blonde.”

Junior Daniel Arhanian captured the charisma of the villainous and solemn Professor Callahan. He took the opportunity to expand his acting range with this specific character, a big change from his humorous role as Gingy in “Shrek” last year.

“I’m used to flailing around on stage and doing whatever I can to elicit audience laughter, so I really wanted to branch out and push myself,” Arhanian said. “I thought it would be an extremely rewarding experience to play this serious and collected character because that is so different from who I am in my day to day life.”

Junior Giselle Laufer played the Irish-Italian hairstylist Paulette Bonafonte. She acts as Elle’s confidante, and Laufer plays that role to perfection. She encapsulates everything about a chatty, supportive hairdresser, feeling like the exact kind of person you’d want to just complain to for hours. Laufer really wanted to capture Paulette’s spontaneity, as well as the complexities around her character, and she delivered on that promise in her performances.

“I was super excited because I’d never gotten to play a comedic relief character in a show before,” Laufer said. “But, I was also very nervous to be in a production as big as this.”

Sophomore Sophia Soltani played Vivian Kensington, Warner’s new girlfriend. Soltani greatly highlighted Vivian’s attributes throughout her performance. She perfectly captured her character’s conceited nature, emphasis on sophistication, and petty aggression toward Elle.
However, Soltani captured her character’s evolution at the end from an arrogant and selfish woman to one who is focused on supporting her fellow women.

“My favorite quality is how Vivian showed herself to be a good person in disguise and that she’s really a girl’s girl,” Soltani said.

Sophomore Isabella Ahounber played Brooke Wyndham, a charismatic fitness instructor who is suspected of murder. Like many in this cast, Ahounber was particularly drawn to this specific role because she considered it to be out of her comfort zone. She fully immersed herself in the character by embodying the character’s confidence and drive within her performance.

“My favorite quality about my character is her confidence to stand up for herself,” Ahounber said. “She is very self-assured and ambitious to reach her goals and makes everyone including herself proud.”