For all its bluster about the importance of self-respect and personal transformation, “Legally Blonde: The Musical” wants you to embrace your stereotypes.

Colorado Mesa University’s first main stage production of the spring season, which opened last Thursday, is a boisterous fluff-fest of the highest order. Though it glosses over some of its troubling political underpinnings (gender, class and race inequality) with equally abrasive doses of volume and sparkle, the talented cast and some smart directing helps elevate “Legally Blonde” over its lowbrow pedigree.

Based on the 2001 Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy of the same name, “Legally Blonde” struts to a familiar narrative tune. Unexpectedly dumped by her elitist boyfriend for being less Jackie Kennedy and more Marilyn Monroe, Elle Woods, the titular blonde sorority queen at Delta Nu, decides to flip the script and follow her ex to Harvard Law School in order to win him back.

Regardless of the film’s success, it seemed that putting music to the proceedings would overload the feel-good cheese machine. While this may be true of the first 15 minutes, where the carnival wheel of sorority sisters singing “Omigod You Guys” grates so potently on the senses that you want to plug every hole in your head, the production’s insidious charm begins to take hold around the end of the first act after we’ve gotten to know the principal characters.

It’s no-brainer casting that puts Kortni Stillwagen in the starring role as Elle. Stillwagon is a natural showman whose verve commands the audience’s attention when she’s front and center, meeting the tasks of song and dance with comedic assuredness when the show requires it, which appears to be most of the time. It’s a testament to Stillwagon’s charisma that Elle’s journey remains interesting throughout in spite of her challenging character quirks.

Ethan Knowles as the young attorney Emmett is likewise compelling. In another act of savvy casting, Knowles perfectly suits his character whose frumpy demeanor is evocative of the chip on his shoulder that drove him to attain his position. It’s refreshing, then, that Knowles is actually not a hot guy who just needs a makeover to realize how hot he really is. Rather, Knowles achieves this transformation through an understated performance that imbues his character with a genuine, sympathetic dignity. He simply plays it to a T.

That the rest of the supporting cast is in its own right just as compelling as the leads speaks multitudes to the success of “Legally Blonde.” Missteps such as the dissonant and haphazard set design and a tonally weird performance from Timothy Dayne as Professor “C-” Callahan thankfully do not detract the show’s well-earned laughs (in many ways thanks in equal parts to the backstage crew who make the set changes look like a breezy affair).

“Legally Blonde” is not for everybody regardless of its jazz-handed efforts to prove otherwise. Its overly simplistic story at times descends to eye-watering levels of cheese that no amount of earnestness can surmount. Even so, it’s a truly impressive spectacle when it works. CMU’s production largely avoids the pitfalls of wanting to have its big, bright and loud cake and eat it, turning a surprisingly affecting and accessible bit of entertainment.

★★★★☆

amaenche@mavs.coloradomesa.edu