Legally Blonde role comes full circle for Alberta actress

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Bracken Burns recently pulled up to the pumps at a service station only to discover the gas tank was not on the passenger side. She pulled away, made a quick U-turn and came to the other side of the gas pump only to discover there was still no gas tank.

“I was having a blond moment or, as I like to call them these days, an Elle Woods moment,” says Burns, who will be playing the sorority girl enrolled at Harvard law school in Stage West’s production of Legally Blonde: The Musical.

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Legally Blonde: The Musical, based on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon film, opened on Broadway in 2007 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards. It didn’t win any but the London version that opened in 2010 won three Laurence Olivier Awards including best new musical.

Burns saw that London production and later auditioned for the U.K. touring production of Legally Blonde.

“Another girl at those auditions told me I wasn’t an Elle Woods type. I can hardly wait to see her again and tell her how wrong she was,” says Burns, who grew up in Peace River.

Burns’ interest in theatre began in Grade 6 when she saw a community production of Grease. She told her parents and friends that she was going to be up on that stage someday. The next year, she was in the group’s production of Annie. Burns would go on to play Jafar in Aladdin, the title character in Bugsy Malone and the Artful Dodger in Oliver! 

She studied theatre at Grant McEwan College in Edmonton and then applied to theatre schools in the United States and the U.K., eventually settling on the Royal Conservatory of Scotland in Glasgow.

“I’m a wee bit Scottish so I thought the Royal Conservatory was a good match,” says Burns.

When she finished her degree, she decided to remain in the U.K. and was cast as Linda, the little sister, in a production of Saturday Night Fever in Frankfurt.

“Robert Stigwood, the British producer, saw the show and created a U.K. tour for it and he kept me in the cast. I spent seven months in Saturday Night Fever in Frankfurt and another nine months touring with it in the U.K. One of the great thrills was playing in the Manchester Opera House where the Beatles once played.”

When her contract with Saturday Night Fever expired, Burns joined a group that created a musical called Wasted Love for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a huge hit that caught the eye of television producers who are turning it into a sitcom. After her stint at Stage West, Burns will go back to the U.K. to appear in the TV series, which is now called Wasting Love.

“It’s about a therapy group for people who have problems with love. I play the host of a kids’ TV program who has a massive breakdown live on TV.”

Since returning to Canada in 2017, Burns has voiced Flossey in the animated series PeopleWatching, has sung on Royal Canadian Air Farce, appeared in the CBC drama Frankie Drake Mysteries, and played trumpet in a Michael Buble video.

“Legally Blonde in Calgary is my first musical since returning to Canada. It’s a dream role. I love how being girlie and ditzy still makes her more powerful. What’s most empowering about Elle is there are no barriers to her determination.”

As soon as she learned she would be playing Elle in Legally Blonde in Calgary, Burns “went out and bought some pink clothes. I even bought a pink scrunchie for my ponytail and I started saying ‘oh my god’ a lot so I think I’m in touch with my inner Elle Woods.”

Legally Blonde: The Musical runs at Stage West from April 20 to June 24.