All that jazz: Zöe Ventura and ensemble in Chicago. Photo: Jeff Busby
All that jazz, indeed, and so much more besides. This Chicago delivers on every level – singing, dancing, choreography, characterisation, music. It’s all fabulous and top notch. The opening number – with a gloriously sultry Zöe Ventura as Velma heading the female ensemble – sets the pace and it never lets up. We are right into a wonderfully murky and murderous world and it’s (okay, somewhat dubious) celebration of glamorous murderesses. But it’s impossible to resist laughing at the ensemble’s sardonic rendition of ‘He Had It Coming’. Domestic violence is on the other boot here, and it’s a high-heeled one. The opening night audience loved it.
Lucy Maunder as the seemingly ditzy blonde but deeply narcissistic wannabe Roxie Hart takes the role and runs with it, making her Roxie playful (her wandering hands make for a giggle in one of the Act 2 scenes with her doctor) as well as determined. The mega-talented Anthony Warlow is commanding as Billy Flynn (‘champion of the downtrodden’, all charm and corruption) and Peter Rowsthorn (downtrodden in Kath and Kim) is his own star turn as another ‘nobody’, bringing the house down with his white-gloved rendition of ‘Mr Cellophane’.
Asabi Goodman delivers as Mama Morton, the smiling but not-to-be-messed with matron of Cook County Jail. She rocks her big number, ‘When You’re Good to Mama’, a smiling hint of menace underneath those big notes.
The Band is also a star turn, opening Act 2 with it’s Entr’acte. This show (and John Lee Beatty’s simple and effective raked set) keeps musical director Anthony Barnhill’s band on stage and in sight for the entire show, and the musicians (especially the rousing brass section) deserve it.
Bob Fosse’s choreography, tweaked for this production by Gary Chryst, remains as fresh and delightful as ever; and every dancer in this show is mesmerising in their agility and coordination.
And the lines are as funny, if not funnier, than they ever were (lyrics by Fred Ebb; book by Ebb and Bob Fosse; music by John Kander).The press conference number ‘We Both Reached for The Gun’, with Billy, Roxie and the Company, is, for me, one of the best scenes in the musical genre and this one does not disappoint. It’s hilarious.
Ironic references to the US justice system (Chicago originated in a 1926 play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, whose aim was to shine a light on the corruption of that system and how it allowed two women to get away with murder) resonate strongly. ‘A lotta people have lost faith in America,’ declares Roxie towards the end of the show. Imagine?
Chicago is Broadway’s longest running musical – 27 years so far and counting. It just goes to show that celebrity and scandal, fostered and manipulated by mass media, never goes out of fashion. And this production of Chicago, in Sydney until 28 July, has razzle dazzle in spades. Not to be missed.
Tickets from $69.90-$149.90, plus booking fees
