Once upon a time, the Broadway musical was considered a woman's province, with Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Gertrude Lawrence, Carol Channing, and Angela Lansbury among the theater's brightest marquee names. But this is 2007, and things have changed somewhat. It's now beginning to look as if the Broadway musical is what some might call "girl-power territory," and the time-honored tuner tradition is becoming a series of morale-building chapters in "The Young Girl's Guide to Growing."

Following in the hit footsteps of Hairspray and Wicked comes Legally Blonde, a boisterous adaptation of the smart and saucy Reese Witherspoon chick-flick. The show, which marks the directing debut of veteran chore[...]