Legally Blonde has a simple aim in life: get you smiling, keep you smiling, and afterwards make you tell your friends they'll smile too.

If you don't grin within seconds of curtain-up then you should grit your teeth and wait for Phantom of the Opera over in Leeds next month.

This show isn't for lovers of grim, it's for fans of shows like Hairspray which deliver a couple of hours of unashamed feelgood fun.

It's a modern fairytale that powers over its age-old storyline and comic-strip characterisation with a super-charged, pink-painted, heart-powered steamroller.

Our heroine is Elle Woods, a bubbly co-ed who -- amidst many catchy and energetic songs -- discovers she's got a brain beneath her blonde bonce.

Elle believes in love, so when sweetheart Warner dumps her and heads for Harvard Law School, she enrols in a bid to get him back.

Initially ridiculed by her classmates, she wins their hearts -- and ours -- while learning there's more to life than hairdos and hunks.

She gets the guy -- the right guy this time -- while using her unique skills to clear a fitness instructor on trial for murder.

* Until July 14. Phone 01274 432000.

David Knights