All that jazz
Can Cuba Gooding Jr cut it on the London stage in Chicago?
Ialleged comedy Boat Trip). But Gooding is an engaging talent and his performance as the disgraced former actor in The People v OJ Simpson reminded us that he is a force of nature who can rip up the rule book, throwing himself into a very believable portrayal of controlling psychopathy.
Now he’s making his West End debut in the well-worn role of
Chicago’s Billy Flynn (for the show’s 21st anniversary production) and, as with his portrayal of Simpson, he has made the role feel freshly minted.
Banish all thoughts of Richard Gere’s blandly super-slick hotshot lawyer in the 2002 film, or indeed any of the dubious celebrity casting that followed (remember Marti Pellow?). Gooding (distracting and anachronistic man-bun aside) is the real deal, making Flynn an anxious doodlebug who you feel could turn on a pin. When he agrees to take on murderous wannabe showgirl Roxie Hart, you really worry if he can save her from the gallows.
It is easy for musical theatre actors to swim in the shallow end of their characters’ psychological states, but Gooding gives a complete performance, showing a touch of the failed vaudevillian who knows his best days are behind him.
But can he sing and dance? Certainly Gooding can move, although he is only really given the opportunity to show off anything resembling proper athletics in
We Both Reached for the Gun and he does so with a showman’s chutzpah. His vocal talents are less in evidence, however. He has a true voice – rasping and rather plaintive – but it is too often drowned out by the orchestra or contrasting unfavourably with the truly excellent ensemble.
Walter Bobbie’s direction (after the great Bob Fosse) is superb and the leanness of Kander and Ebb’s book means that the whole thing rattles along with gusto. Of the other lead performances (which were variable), I was most taken with Josefina Gabrielle, simultaneously tough and vulnerable as Roxie Hart’s nemesis Velma Kelly, and Paul Rider, very touching as Roxie’s cuckolded husband, Amos.
This is a show with just the right amount of razzle-dazzle and which knows when to turn down the dial to give its audience more reflective moments, such as in the song Class. Gooding shows he has that in spades.