Review: Phoenix Theatre Presents CHICAGO

There never was nor will there ever be a time in American life like the Roaring 20's. The era of Prohibition conjures up images of bootleggers, speakeasies and flappers. If there is a theater piece that best evokes the rhythms and feel of that time and mixes them with the themes of murder, deceit, and corruption it is certainly CHICAGO, the Bob Fosse, John Kander and Fred Ebb musical that forty years after its premiere still vibrates with all that jazz.

It is also, however, a metaphor of American life, a mirror of our culture ~ a tale of the 20's scribed in the '70's and forecasting a condition that, decades and multiple performances later, remains unmitigated. It is Fosse's dark satire, dressed in razzmatazz, of the hypocrisy in a system that glorifies corruption and makes celebrities out of criminals. Albeit the star murderesses of this fiction proclaim that "In 50 years or so, it's gonna change ya know," it hasn't and it apparently won't.

Honing the cutting edge of this opus and retaining its relevance, entertaining the audience while forcing its discomfort, is the artistic director's great challenge.

Phoenix Theatre's Season-opening production of CHICAGO, meets this challenge half-way. It is all flash without the fire.

Great flash, for sure, reflecting the brilliance and showmanship of Michael Barnard, entering his seventeenth year as the company's Producing Artistic Director. He has gathered a storm of production quality: Alan Ruch's literally uplifting music; Kelly Yurko's deliciously sexy and vintage costumes; Greg Jaye's and Joel Birch's elegant set design; Mike Eddy's complementary and subtle lighting; and Sam Hay's kickass choreography performed by a very hot ensemble.

The fire of the satire, however, is overshadowed if not dowsed by the spectacle. That wouldn't be a problem if the performances, with two major exceptions (Jenny Hintze and Terey Summers), were as equally calibrated to reveal the corruption of the spirit that Fosse aimed to expose (and which he accomplished classically in Cabaret).

Such is the case with the character of Roxie Hart whose tale of wooing, woe, and wile is at the epicenter of CHICAGO. She is a housewife in a less than satisfying marriage with an ordinary Amos who dives into an affair with her furniture salesman and terminates the tryst when he jilts her. Awaiting trial for murder, she starts getting wise to the system, learning the ropes from fellow inmates, abetted by the unscrupulous advice of her shyster lawyer, and seduced by her media-fed celebrity. She competes for attention with fellow celebrity murderess Velma and sharpens her own competitive teeth. When fame is suddenly snatched from the jaws of her trial victory, Roxie settles down with a new reality, that "you can like the life you're livin', you can live the life you like, you can even marry Harry but mess around with Ike, and that's good!"

Herein lies the emotional landscape that Roxie Hart traverses, with its rises and falls, its shifts from vulnerability and near-cluelessness to deceit to bewilderment and finally to acceptance. Kate E. Cook occupies the role with vitality. Her song and dance chops are undeniable, but she misses the boat on character development, on revealing the nuances and transitions that are pivotal to Fosse's vision and to her relations with the other characters.

Jenny Hintze is perfect as Velma, embodying her role with panache and believability as the street-wise, sassy, high-kicking, aspiring vaudevillian, who aims not to be undone by Roxie's rising star. From her opening All That Jazz to the closing Nowadays with Roxie, Hintze is a magnetic on-stage presence.

Likewise, Terey Summers' portrayal of Mama Morton, the jail matron is superb. She owns a know-it-all Sophie Tuckerish bawdiness with a richness of voice and a smooth set of bumps and grinds.

Walter Belcher plays Billy Flynn, the charismatic and dapper defense attorney, retained by both Roxie and Velma. His cross between a Baptist preacher and Johnnie Cochrane is entertaining but just shy of the sinister that the role demands.

Having said all this, I have no doubt that audiences will love the performance and the richly-talented cast. The question is whether they'll leave the theatre with Fosse's message and an appropriate level of discomfort about the condition we're in.

CHICAGO continues its run through October 4th.

Photo credit to Phoenix Theatre.

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