Does “Chicago” still have that old razzle-dazzle?
That’s the crucial question on which the 25th anniversary tour of the nearly 50-year-old musical hangs its Fossefied hat, through Jan. 29 at the CIBC Theatre.
Inarguably, the show with a score by legendary composer John Kander, book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, and lyrics by Ebb, has remarkable staying power.
The anniversary tour production is based on a 1996 Broadway reboot of the show’s original staging, directed and choreographed by Fosse in 1975. Fosse’s work looms large here, in director Tania Nardini’s and choreographer Gary Chryst’s “recreation,” just as it did over that reboot by the director/choreographer team of Walter Bobbie and Ann Reinking.
Still, this “Chicago” is more facsimile than replica of its quarter-century-old inspiration. It’s looking a bit frayed around its sleek, sinewy edges. It remains an entertaining rendition of a brilliant show, but the razzle-dazzle is a few sequins short.
More than anything, the decadent story of “Chicago” (based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins) is a satire on pop culture’s endlessly lurid with fascination with, per the show’s opening line, “murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery — all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts.”
The plot follows aspiring showgirls and celebrity murderesses Velma Kelly (Logan Floyd) and Roxie Hart (Katie Frieden) through bedrooms, dance halls, gin joints, courtrooms, jails and press conferences, as they navigate the fickle hand of fate, angling for fame and fortune in Roaring ‘20s Chicago.
Velma and Roxie become archrivals in the hoosegow, each competing to curry the favor of Matron “Mama” Morton (Christina Wells) and smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn (Jeff Brooks).
The Sidney Sheldon-worthy plot is a fine showcase for Kander’s wickedly delightful score, which features deservedly iconic standards including “Mr. Cellophane” (delivered with real pathos by Brian Kalinowski as Roxie’s hapless husband Amos), the ever-popular “Cell Block Tango,” “Razzle Dazzle,” and “When You’re Good to Mama,” which on opening night suffered an audio cut-out; after a seven-minute hold, Wells got a do-over and belted it out with aplomb.
The moral of “Chicago”? Money can buy you freedom and fame; guilt and innocence are beside the point. It’s a lesson another accused murderess, the Hungarian immigrant Hunyak (Liz Lester), learns in the show’s singularly harrowing scene, when her sentence to hang for her crime puts an abrupt — if not unjust — end to her passionate claims of “Not Guilty” and her insistence that Uncle Sam never harms the innocent.
That said, the current crop of headline-hungry, merry murderesses acquit themselves fairly well. Frieden’s Roxie is appropriately bubbly and thirsty, a flapper willing to take on any role — convent schoolgirl, hapless victim, ventriloquist’s dummy, doting mother-to-be — to reach celebrity status. Floyd’s Velma is a hardened sophisticate by comparison, an ill-fated gig in Cicero having opened her eyes to the world’s cruel faithlessness. Both actors are fine if not unforgettable in the long pantheon of Velmas and Roxies.
The ensemble numbers are the showstoppers here, never so much as in “Razzle Dazzle,” which turns a Chicago courtroom into a circus complete with lions, acrobats and clowns. Vocally it’s not impeccable — Billy Flynn’s smooth tenor needs to be velvet and Brooks’ voice is more velour, but the ensemble of glittery grifters drives the point home beautifully.
The choreography for “Chicago” has ever been defined by slick, seamless sensuality and joyful debauchery. Here, the seams sometimes show and the glee seems less than spontaneous. It is workmanlike delivery, solid but not exceptional.
In the end, this “Chicago” isn’t a replica so much as a mimeograph of the original — you can see still the brilliance of the original, but it’s lost some luster and sharpness in translation.
