Theater spotlight: Hey girl! 'Legally Blonde' musical opens at Aurora's Paramount

Elle heads for Harvard

Paramount Theatre opens its season with "Legally Blonde," the musical adapted from the 2001 film about irrepressible Elle Woods, a California sorority girl who follows her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School in an effort to get him back. Chicago-area newcomers Casey Shuler and Gerald Caesar make their Paramount debuts as Elle and Emmett Forrest, the third-year law student who befriends her.

Previews at 1:30 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5; 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6; and 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7, at 23 E. Galena Blvd., Aurora. The show opens Sept. 9. $36-$69. (630) 896-6666 or paramountaurora.com.

'Charity' returns

Director/choreographer Alex Sanchez returns to Marriott Theatre to helm its revival of "Sweet Charity," the jazzy, 1960s musical by composer Cy Coleman and lyricist Dorothy Fields with a book by the late Neil Simon. The story centers on the hopelessly romantic Charity Hope Valentine, a dance hall hostess with a heart of gold and terrible taste in men. Her luck seems to improve after she meets nervous accountant Oscar Lindquist. Anne Horak stars as Charity opposite Alex Goodrich's Oscar.

Previews at 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6; 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8; and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. The show opens Sept. 12. $50-$60. (847) 634-0200 or marriotttheatre.com.

French farce

A straight-laced wife and her lawyer husband are happy together until "sly suitors and femme fatales" attempt to break them up in "The Dingdong, or How the French Kiss," adapted by Michael Shanahan from Georges Feydeau's 1951 French comedy "Le Dindon." Buffalo Theatre Ensemble's Chicago-area premiere features five actors playing 13 roles.

The preview is at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. The show opens Sept. 7. $40. (630) 942-4000 or btechicago.com or atthemac.org.

Suddenly Seymour

A timid flower shop employee gets more than he bargained for when he nurtures a mysterious plant with an appetite for human blood in the musical comedy "Little Shop of Horrors," by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Scott Calcagno directs Drury Lane Theatre's revival, which stars Will Lidke as Seymour and Kelly Felthous as his beloved Audrey, whose namesake plant wreaks havoc on their skid-row neighborhood.

Previews at 1:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 6; 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8; and 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. The show opens Sept. 13. $45-$65. (630) 530-0111 or drurylanetheatre.com.