{image1}I thought there was nothing new to bring to this. I was wrong.
With a major movie and regional productions aplenty to be seen in the past three years, Kander and Ebb's "Chicago" has probably become the most overdone show in the world, but this production, the Broadway touring company, still found something new to add to it. For those very few who don't know the story, a housewife named Roxie Hart murders her lover, and finds herself being catapulted to fame and fortune with the help of a publicity savvy lawyer and scheming prison matron, and in competition with a fading vaudeville star, while her nobody husband passively watches.
Based on true events, it's part satire, part sarcastic commentary on the public crapulence for narcissistic sensationalism. Not a pleasant story, it failed as a musical in its first incarnation in the late 1970s, but the trimmed down 1996 version struck a chord with audiences everywhere, and the rest, like the story in the play, is history - sort of.
Originally directed by the legendary Bob Fosse, this version is staged by Walter Bobbie, and he brings a showing that is slick, polished, but with a surprising amount of heart. With an emphasis on talent instead of spectacle, it's done on a dark, film noir stage with dark costumes that turn the lighting effects into a character in the show.
The orchestra is up on stage participating in the action, and mounted so that they're actually a mirror image of the audience, a clever trick that draws you into the action. A fabulously talented chorus first dances up a storm, then a hurricane, with choreography originally developed by Fosse and later reworked by the equally legendary Ann Reinking. Fast pacing, brilliant singing and a few other clever tricks that I'm not going to give away result in an electrifying spectacle that really does give you the old razzle-dazzle, and then some.
Watching the leading roles is a fun exercise in wondering who's going to succeed in stealing the show, which fits in well with the crime theme. Your first suspect is Carol Woods in the role of Mama Morton, the greedy prison matron, who got a thunderous ovation with her dark and versatile voice. Next in the line-up was veteran Gregory Harrison as shyster Billy Flynn, with a performance so down and dirty that you wondered if the carnation in his lapel had actually found fertile soil to grow in.
Ray Bokhour almost got fingered as the culprit as he found a way to stand out in a role that has him playing a wallflower, and it looked for a while as if Brenda Braxton would get framed for the deed as Velma Kelly, the vaudeville star on the fast track to the bottom. Braxton's dancing skills are the weakest in the show, but she makes up for it with a voice so powerful and rich you could taste the whiskey at the bottom of it.
But the guilty party turned out to be the astonishing, thrilling Bianca Marroquin in the plum role of Roxie Hart. Roxie is a difficult and unsympathetic character, but Marroquin has no trouble getting you on her side in a performance that has to be seen to be believed. This Mexican spitfire can sing, act, dance with infinite energy, and is even a talented mime. Marroquin is a rare quadruple threat, and I'm looking forward to seeing her on stage again.
Make no mistake about it. Even if you've seen this show a dozen times before, this production is still worth taking in. "Chicago" is a delightful debauchery, filled with dynamic dancing divas, that cleverly manages to bring a few surprises to an overexposed property, and plays at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in through Sunday, Sept. 5. Call (414) 273-7206 for tickets.
