Lucy Durack in Legally Blonde the Musical. Photo: David Clemson Bend and snap. But don't pull focus from where the real creative fires burn in terms of writing and direction. OK, no question: Legally Blonde the Musical was slickly directed and funny and engaging. But this tasty confection, its book imported from the US and awash in American accents, is not the best Australian stage production of the past year by any measure. Nathaniel Dean, Ursula Yovich, Rory Potter and Trevor Jamieson in Sydney Theatre Company's The Secret River. Photo: Heidrun Lohr You'd be forgiven for thinking that was the case given Live Performance Australia chooses each year to make best musical its final award of the night at the Helpmanns, sending the message that this is indeed The Big One. Don't get me wrong; Legally Blonde director Jerry Mitchell and its Australian stars Lucy Durack and Helen Dallimore were all deserving of their Helpmann gongs on Monday night at the 13th annual life performance awards at the Opera House. In its best musical category, it was up against local productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, US cartoon and sitcom spinoff The Addams Family and Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. U-S-A! you can almost hear.) And sure, we have the world-class talent to carry these US-originated shows off: Forum star Geoffrey Rush got a gong for best male actor in a musical, while The Addams Family's endearing Australian Uncle Fester, Russell Dykstra, danced with delight with his best male in a supporting role in a musical award, even if audiences didn't widely click,click with that musical. As Baz Luhrmann appeared on stage to present an award on Monday night, hope hovered of a deeply Australian vein of musical, with his Strictly Ballroom planned to open in Sydney next year. King Kong meanwhile was awarded for, among other things, its technical achievement of the giant ape, which local mob Global Creatures hopes to sell to Broadway. Bizarrely, last year we were treated to white suits and hats and coat-tails and a cast knees-up with the 2012 Helpmanns best musical winner A Chorus Line as the Helpmanns finale, discombobulating its audience into not only another hemisphere, but another decade. The Helpmanns always gets the final order wrong: the last award for the night should have been best play, in this case The Secret River. It was an eloquent, beautifully pitched piece of theatre that roused audiences to standing ovations. Design wise, it evoked so much. Acting-wise, it was visceral. Direction-wise, it was, well, wise. Instead, The Secret River played second fiddle, despite also scoring best direction for Neil Armfield, best new Australian work for Kate Grenville and Andrew Bovell, and best supporting actor for Colin Moody, as well as best original score and best music direction for Iain Grandage. The Secret River gave us our shared indigenous and non-indigenous history. Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton made it their first commission when they came as artistic directors to the Sydney Theatre Company. Upton sounded a little plaintive as he made that fact known at the podium. The Secret River was about us. And its honour as best play should have been the pinnacle of the night. When an imported musical is sharing the awards stage with a great Australian work such as The Secret River, it shouldn't pull focus. The Helpmanns needs to make a simple switch to send an important message: Australian stories count.