For all its raunch, has Chicago lost its razzle dazzle?
CAN it be true that the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago is back in the West End? Already? The 1997 revival may have run for 15 years — until 2012 — before an endless national tour . But here it is again, with Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr as Twenties lawyer Billy Flynn, getting Chicago’s murderesses off death row.
If it’s your eyeballs you want popping , you won’t be disappointed. Every one of the company of dancers is a variation on Aphrodite or Adonis, with barely a stitch of clothing . Body- hugging costumes make sure we don ’t miss a toned ab, curving buttock or quivering cleavage.
To me, all this raunch is a bit regimented. It’s naughtiness by numbers. True, it’s got some of the great tunes of musical theatre with All That Jazz getting us salivating from the start. But the story is little more than a pretext for Bob F osse’s relentlessly risque choreography. And the torrent of K ander and Ebb ’s brassy tunes don ’t always dis - guise the ropey plot.
So if you’re going to star in it, you’d better be able to hold a tune — and I’m not sure Mr Gooding Jr can.
For all his Hollywood stardust and hugely benign stage presence, it ’ s certainly a baptism by fire.
This is the first musical on his CV, and only the second time he’s worked in a theatre. He acts largely from the neck up and you wonder if he has breath enough to sustain his husky warbles through numbers including All I Care About and Razzle Dazzle.
Luckily, the cast more than carry him. The best of them is Josefina Gabrielle as the jail’s oldest lag, Velma Kelly. Leading a scissor-kicking display with six other killer broads in the Cell Block Tango, she has lungs, legs and presence to burn.
As her showgirl nemesis Roxie Hart, stealing her lawyer (and trial date), Sarah Soetaert by contrast is a doll — diminutive, faux bashful and sometimes quite erroneously subtle.
Ruthie Henshall puts in a solid turn as prison fixer , Mama Morton. Her song When Y ou’re Good To Mama includes the immortal line ‘if you want my gravy, pepper my ragu’.
There’s also a nice turn from Paul Rider as Roxie’s invisible, useful-idiot husband. And A .D. Richardson, as Mary Sunshine, does a nice wobbly soprano in A Little Bit Of Good to fuel one of the show’s running jokes.
Fosse’s choreography — revamped by Ann Reinking and Gary Chryst — once more storms the stage but is somewhat cramped, with only a few metres available in front of a huge bank of seating for the band.
This makes the dancing feel like a hectic frieze. W ith so many bodies sculpted like Greek gods, perhaps an evoca - tion of the Elgin marbles isn ’t so bad.
Besides, this is a spirited revival, even if it feels like we’ve been there (and got the g-string).