Nine-month-old Penny and seven-year-olds Oreo and Casey starred in the Pascack Theatre production of “Legally Blonde;” however, they do not attend Pascack Valley or Pascack Hills High School. These cast members are dogs.

“Legally Blonde” has two canine characters: Elle Woods’s dog Bruiser and Paulette Bonafonté’s dog Rufus. Bruiser was played by Oreo, a shih tzu, and Casey, a chihuahua. Rufus was played by Penny, a pit bull with a little bit of French bulldog. 

The directors, Merielle and Thomas Lupfer, came up with the idea to use real dogs, but they originally planned to use “Broadway dogs”—dogs trained for performing in plays and musicals. However, the directors eventually decided to use dogs from volunteers in the school.

The dogs are all owned by students at PV. Leah Fox owns Casey, Mia Vasquez owns Oreo, and Abby Campbell owns Penny.

The dog owners and handlers worked with the dogs using treats supplied by Westwood Pets to get them to focus on stage. On showdays, Bailey Martin, a freshman at PV, and Mathilda Oosting, a sophomore at PH, each took care of the separate dogs backstage: Martin worked with Oreo or Casey, depending on the night, and Oosting worked with Penny. 

Anna Stern, a junior at PV who portrayed Paulette in the musical and performed most closely with Penny, mentioned a couple of difficulties they ran into when working with the dogs.

“Funny story, on the Friday night show we couldn’t find the dog bag [with the treats], so we used Fritos, which [Penny] loved,” said Stern.

Even though they couldn’t find the treats, Penny still performed as she usually did on stage. Another funny story Stern mentioned occurred during a dress rehearsal.

“During a rehearsal one time, I was like, ‘Aw, [Penny’s] being so cute, she’s sitting next to me,’ and she peed on the stage, she was not sitting,” said Stern while laughing.

Finally, there was a mix up with the dogs performing as Bruiser. Both Oreo and Casey showed up to perform for one of the shows, and they were forced to turn Casey away.

Luckily, when it came to showdays, the dogs successfully performed without any major problems.

Oreo (Bruiser)

Oreo, Vasquez’s dog, has been a member of the Vasquez family since 2018. She lives with two other dogs and a cat. Oftentimes, you’ll find her sleeping or playing with her siblings. Oreo is a very loving dog who seemed to enjoy being a part of this production.

This is Oreo’s first time in a musical, and Vasquez, a junior at PV, says this new experience has been great for everyone involved. 

“If they need another dog next year, I would be so up for it because it was her favorite thing,” Vasquez said. “Every time I would bring her, she’d pull on the leash to get inside, and she’d jump up on everybody. It was so cute.”

Oreo’s favorite part about being in the musical was performing on stage. She loved all of the attention and interacting with every human. However, being so small comes with its disadvantages. 

“The hardest part with her was that she gets really nervous quickly because she is the weight of a speck of dust, and she thinks that everything is gonna kill her, which is very possible,” Vasquez said.

Overall, Oreo had a great time co-starring in “Legally Blonde,” and it is no assumption to say that she’d love to participate again next year.

Casey (Bruiser)

Casey is a kind and friendly dog who has been a member of the Fox family for four years. Casey originally joined the Foxes as a foster dog and was eventually adopted by them in 2020. 

“Casey is very friendly [and] she loves people,” said Fox, a junior at PV. “Her favorite activities include napping…standing by the heater and going outside, and she also loves to bark.”

Casey is a well-loved dog who enjoys sleeping and, according to Fox, “lounging outside with her favorite people.”

However, Casey wasn’t always meant to be a part of the school musical. Oreo, the original Bruiser, couldn’t make it to a few shows, and the cast members had to act quickly. Finally, they found a solution when Maya Teckwani, the lead in Legally Blonde, went to Fox for help.

“Maya Teckwani called me and said how much Casey looked like Bruiser [the dog in Legally Blonde,] and she was wondering if we could do a couple of shows,” said Fox.

The Fox family was thrilled and immediately accepted the offer.

Overall, Fox says that Casey’s and her experiences in the school musical were great, and she would love to do it again someday.

Penny (Rufus)

Penny joined the Campbell family in August of 2024. Her new family includes PV’s interim photography teacher Ms. Campbell and PV sophomore and actress in the musical Abby Campbell. The family also has another dog named Louie and two guinea pigs, Moose and Winnie.

Penny was originally a rescue foster puppy, but when a potential “forever family” fell through, the Campbell family decided to keep her for themselves. In fact, they were thinking of keeping Penny long before that.

“She was supposed to be a foster, but we kept her for a long time,” said Abby Campbell. “We were really torn [on keeping Penny or not], so when she got adopted, we were relieved, and then when we found out it might not work out, we were [already] hoping to get her back, and we were really happy.”

According to Campbell, it was easy to get Penny to perform with strangers because she has always shown a love for people.

“She loves everyone, and she’s really energetic,” Campbell said. “She loves to play, and she goes to doggy day care in the mornings just to get her energy out.”

Training a puppy with so much energy to perform on stage is a challenging feat, so Campbell began training her before the other dogs began their training to avoid any major mishaps.

“I started by calling her Rufus, always,” Campbell explained. “My family calls her Rufus now. She [already knew the command] ‘Penny, come’, so we started with ‘Rufus, come’ because that’s what Anna [Stern] says in the show–that’s her cue.”

When asked about performing Penny, Stern expressed how it was always fun for her as well as Penny and the other dogs.

“This is my favorite thing I’ve had to do with theater,” said Stern. “The dogs are so well-behaved, and [they were] so cute backstage. When I’m on stage, I’m not acting. I love dogs, so it was a really easy experience. I had a lot of fun working with [them].”