Chicago National Tour Reviews

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

San Diego Union Tribune review of the "Chicago" tour:

It's a long way from the model runway to the musical-theater stage, and the boisterous Christie Brinkley makes the leap with both left feet.

Give her this: The lady looks amazing and has natural dazzle to spare. She is 58 years old and, and as Roxie Hart in the musical “Chicago,” she manages to make the show’s plot point of a pregnancy (and not the test-tube variety — this is the 1920s, after all) seem even plausible.

Brinkley, of course, is best-known as a supermodel, not a Broadway baby. Before she first took on the role of Roxie last year in New York and London, she had no musical-stage experience to speak of. (She has been sung of pretty famously, in ex-husband Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” video, but that doesn’t quite count.)

So now that’s she reprising Roxie at the Civic Theatre to kick off the latest national tour of “Chicago,” how’s that voice?

The good news is, Brinkley can carry a tune. Gingerly. Something like, say, a bar maid balancing a tray of hand grenades.

Her singing has a husky note that fits the rough-edged glamour gal Roxie, but it doesn’t pack much punch, and high notes tend to be an adventure. (My Civic seatmate used the diplomatically descriptive term “pitchy.”)

Brinkley’s generally competent dancing likewise carries a sense of the precarious — although Ann Reinking’s choreography, patterned after the iconic Bob Fosse’s work from the original ‘70s production, can’t be easy for even a seasoned pro to master.

What Brinkley does bring to this merrily morbid story of fame and mayhem in the Windy City is a presence like a summer sunbeam, plus a game-for-anything streak of moxie. Her disarming charm can even make you overlook the recurring case of “model mouth” (those frequently puckered lips, gratuitous pouts and general kissy-face-ness) that works its way into her acting technique.


This is probably a good time to note there are other cast members in “Chicago” besides the Queen B.

Longtime “Chicago” hand Amra-Faye Wright belts with the best of them as Velma Kelly, Roxie’s fellow jailbird, and is a skilled (and very athletic) dancer on numbers like “I Can’t Do It Alone.”

John O’Hurley, the silky-voiced “Seinfeld” favorite and “Dancing With the Stars” champ, makes for a suitably suave Billy Flynn, the oily lawyer and patron saint of desperate (and publicity-mad) female clients who’ve slain bedmates, spouses and straying squeezes.

Those include Roxie, Velma and all the locked-up ladies who sing their tongue-in-cheek tales of injustice in “Cell Block Tango,” one of several memorable numbers from the score by John Kander and Fred Ebb.

The show, co-written by Ebb and Fosse (with Scott Faris’ re-creation of Walter Bobbie’s Broadway direction), also boasts sharp and funny turns by Ron Orbach as Roxie’s sad-sack husband Amos, and Carol Woods as the jail boss Matron “Mama” Morton, plus a deep ensemble. And there’s clever jawing between cast members and conductor Don York, whose 13 musicians capture the score’s brass and sass as they face the audience on a steeply raked bandstand. (It’s the main visual element in what’s a very spare scenic design by John Lee Beatty.)

Brinkley's best moments come on the number "We Both Reached for the Gun" and the climactic, sharply staged courtroom scene, which both seem to tap into her natural sense of fun.

The show as a whole feels a little muted, as if it’s tiptoeing around the tyro at its middle. Hard to tell how much the rest of the company might be covering for the cover girl, but suffice to say that while this latest bout of “Chicago” celebrity casting has its rewards, it can't quite claim Roxie’s deadeye aim.
(Reviewed by James Hebert)


from RC in Austin, Texas


Chicago National Tour review

[My Oh My]

Been a while since I last saw this (2006, national tour) but I'm in the poorhouse this month and don't know if Ms. B would make it worthwhile.

It sounds she has a lot of fun in the role and in that role specifically, that's important. I'll see how many pennies I have left in the piggie.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

I'll be going up to Dallas and see it when the tour stops there from Aug. 14-26th. I'd like to see for myself as to how good/bad C.B. does in the role of "Roxie." I've seen a video where Melissa Rae Mahon (current Go-To-Hell-Kitty and one of two Roxie u/s)discusses how celebrity Roxies use the modified choreography when necessary. I'm still wondering who'll be Velma in August. from RC in Austin, Texas

[DAME]

If the Pantages has a $25 rush I might give it a go.

[My Oh My]

$25 rush sounds gooood to this needy theatre fan. I should really purchase some new pants and shoes though. Saying I know better than to wear my best to the nosey kids at work can only work for so long, LOL.

Meh. Eff shoes. Theatre is more important. Hey at least I can eat. XD

[rosscoe(au)]

Maybe I need to see this. have never seen the show from a seat in the theatre, but have seen it 500 or so times!

[DAME]

I opted to watch it again that way last night. Only made it half way thru. My urge to rush it is now gone.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Would someone from the San Diego or L.A. area scan the Playbill page which lists the cast members of the current "Chicago" tour. I'm wondering how many of them will be from the same group which toured last summer 2011. Thanks..RC