The Search for Elle - Part 7

We're one show away from the finale to Legally Blonde: The Musical: The Search for Elle, and the pressure is on as the four finalists fight for the lead role.

It's amazing to realize that none of the candidates have ever performed on Broadway - and the producers are getting ready to give one of them the lead role in a difficult (and very entertaining) show.

Still, all four candidates have lots of potential. This episode started with the usual snipping between the girls about how bad they want to win and how another actor isn't as strong at singing or dancing or acting. Blah, blah, blah - more performances, less griping, please.

The first challenge they faced was a training exercise that forced them to combine the three vital skills for an actor in a musical - singing while dancing and acting. It's interesting that each actor has a weakness - Rhiannon struggles with singing, Autumn with dancing, and Bailey and Lauren with acting. The judges commented at one point (and this is something every director has probably said at one time or another) that they wished they could combine each actor's strong point into a Frankenstein-ish performer. But that trick never works.

After being treated to a fancy dinner, the actors faced their next challenge - two days of rehearsal for the performance of the song, "What You Want," which (naturally) combined the three disciplines, and threw in a quick costume change, too. The audition also included several performers from the Broadway show (and you can't help but wonder how they feel about these newcomers getting a shot at the lead role).

Each performance had positives and negatives - and Bailey managed to overcome being handed the wrong hat, which kept sliding down over her eyes (as seen in the above photo, courtesy MTV). Either Lauren has a huge noggin or Bailey has a golf ball head - I'm not sure which.

All four actors had to face the judges, and in the end, Lauren was sent home - mostly because of her youth and inexperience. At the very end, the judges dropped another shocker for the actors - the director only wants to see two candidates in the final audition, so another actor will be cut - but apparently not until the beginning of the next episode.

So one more show will give us the winner. I still think it's going to come down to Bailey and Autumn, but we'll see - Rhiannon has great stage presence, but I just don't think she has the pipes for the job.

We'll find out next week!