AS chance would have it, the Ambassador Theatre Group's national touring production of Legally Blonde, The Musical, played the Grand Opera House this very week in 2012 on its second visit to York in 13 months with Faye Brookes in the lead role.

Now, Laurence O'Keefe, Neil Benjamin and Heather Hach's fluffy-as-candyfloss yet sharply satirical American rom-com has been snapped up by York Stage Musicals for a splash of pink to see out the summer, and the York company more than holds its own against the professional tour.

Nik Briggs's company is on a hot streak, first a riotous Hairspray at the Opera House in April and now the pink and perky Legally Blonde's ray of Malibu sunshine, the two shows being linked by the effervescent lead presence of Maya Tether.

Tether by name, she may be, but you cannot tether the characters she has played in 2015. Her plump teen rebel Tracy Turnblad was plucky, spunky and funny in her determination to prove "fat girls can dance" in Hairspray, and she sang like a latter-day Helen Shapiro too. Now, she plays the outsider once more, Elle Woods, the Malibu bottle-blonde who has fun but wants to have more than that when her ruthless boyfriend Warner (Matthew Ainsworth) dumps her after securing a place at Harvard Law School.

Fashion merchandising student Elle may be bubblegum pink and bubbly but she is indefatigable, and so she too wins a Harvard place, where she sticks out like her dog Bruiser from her handbag. All the while, amid the Ivy League snobbery, she stays true to herself en route to cutting the legal mustard by an unconventional route.

As in Hairspray, Tether reveals a knockout voice and great warmth and her Elle is feisty and deliciously funny, full of vulnerability yet vitality, capturing the character's instinctive nous. She bonds splendidly with Jo Theaker's trailer-trash hairdresser Paulette and sparks off her Greek chorus, representing her inner thoughts in the all-American form of Katie Glover, Kitty Watson and Terrelle Kay.

Darren Roberts's cynical, predatory lawyer Professor Callahan hits the spot in Blood In The Water; Liz Nicholson's exercise video guru Brooke Wyndham whips the second half into shape – when standing trial for murder – in the skipping-rope highlight of Lesley Hill's hot, fun and funky choreography. Conor Mellor's pool boy has a scene-stealing courtroom cameo in Gay Or European?, while company newcomer Timothy Gough grows pleasingly into his corduroy-clad role as quietly burgeoning lawyer Emmett Forrest and Joe Mellor amuses as the muscular UPS delivery stud, Kyle.

Stephen Hackshaw's band are sprightly and spring heeled, although their volume could be turned down a notch to the benefit of the singers, who had to sing too high on occasion on Monday. Hill's dance routines are in turn energetic, fabulous, sexy and camp, and Briggs's direction brings out the fast, frothy fun in the witty songs and dialogue alike, with just the right application of the risqué too.

Legally Blonde, The Musical, York Stage Musicals, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york