MURDER, GREED, ADULTERY… AND ALL THAT JAZZ
JU ntil April 16
★★★★★
‘Music and dance are practically characters in the show’
ohn Kander and Fred Ebb knew how to launch a show: hit the audience right away with a big musical number to establish the tone, the place, the time, the atmosphere and what it’s all about.
So Chicago launches a murder investigation and trial with a raucous piece of 1920s razzmatazz that invites you to a place ‘where the gin is cold but the piano’s hot... and all that jazz’.
The menu is delivered in the first announcement, ‘Murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, adultery and treachery… all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts’.
There’s a moral in there but it’s enclosed in a cynical, erotic satire on the American dream and the judicial system, about a murderess cashing in on her crime and subsequent fame while blessing herself at every opportunity.
It’s a blasting invitation to have a good time and enjoy the sight of dazzling dancers defying the usual restraints on the human body and singers spitting out those snappy Fred Ebb lyrics.
And high on the target list are an exploitable legal system and willingly gullible journalists craving a scoop with bleeding-heart stories. King of the sleazy lawyers and champion of the downtrodden is Billy Flynn – he only cares about love and a down payment of $5,000.
West Side Story brought dance to new heights in musicals, but the Bob Fosse choreography for Chicago goes way beyond it.
Every step, pause, wiggle, twitch and turn is an integral part of the show in a combination of ballet and Olympic-style gymnastics.
But, it’s never movement for its own sake. It’s dance used as a language of its own, brilliantly coordinated with the on-stage band that accompanies as though it were a character by itself.
Music and dance are practically characters in the show. And the artistry of the dancers in their sinuous sensuality is positively awesome, singly and as an ensemble. You can only marvel at the work that must have gone into the whole performance.
The show is about the married Roxie Hart, killer of her on-theside lover, awaiting trial in Cook County Jail where ‘six merry murderesses’ justify their actions, including one husband-killer who ‘took a rifle off the wall and fired two warning shots into his head’. And it’s up to the unprincipled Billy to prep them for court with some sob story that will swing the jury and result in lucrative tabloid headlines.
Roxie and her arch rival Velma vie with each other for precious headlines that will bring in money.
As a show it’s more of a revue than a traditional musical. Songs and story are both performed in cabaret style.
The Chicago characters are funny, callous and dangerous but they’re types, played for fun not for in-depth study, except perhaps for Roxie’s husband Amos. Dialogue is restricted and the songs come in upbeat cabaret style. They’re brilliant, but by the end of the first part the repetitive style begins to pall.
It picks up in the second half when Billy is prepping Roxie and Velma for their trials, dialogue plays a greater role and there’s one incident that unexpectedly brings reality alive.
Russell Watson was not available to play Billy in the opening week. Faye Brookes was a classy Roxie; Djalenga Scott partnered her as the jealous Velma, and Sheila Ferguson was the unscrupulous jail boss Mama Morton.
Cynical yet fun, Chicago invites us to have a good time