BWW Reviews: Playhouse on Park Dishes Out CHICAGO Razzle-Dazzle Through July 24

Chicago

Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Darlene Zoller
Now through July 24 at Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, CT
www.playhouseonpark.org

Right before we headed in to Playhouse on Park's new production of the landmark musical Chicago, three friends and I hit another landmark, A.C. Peterson's next door to the theatre for ice cream sundaes.  Long a family favorite of West Hartfordites, Peterson's is generally jammed with people lining up for a cool treat on a hot summer night.  Thank goodness we made the pit stop before the show, because things were about to get quite heated next door.  Playhouse on Park's sizzling take on the Kander and Ebb classic may not stray an inch from the Broadway revival that has been running for 15 years, but it serves as a reminder of the potency of show-biz razzle dazzle.  Two weeks after the Casey Anthony verdict was tried in the media, Chicago's merry murderesses still make the case that in America celebrity trumps justice every time.

The production gets off to a surprisingly flat start with "All That Jazz."  P.O.P.'s choice of Velma Kelly, Elise Murphy, never manages to muster the slow-burn villainy of her character.  In her hands, the most famous song in Chicago's stupendous score never catches fire.  Some of this can be attributed to the acoustics of the space and the proximity of the orchestra.  At several points in the evening, whether due to an overly-loud 8-piece band or an under-amplified performer, some of the singers were rendered difficult to hear.  Murphy falls victim to inaudibility most often, which threatens the balance of the production as Velma is front and center at the beginning of the show and has several significant numbers throughout .  Her "I Can't Do It Alone" and "When Velma Takes the Stand" showed that Murphy can carry a song and the part's athletic dancing, but she fails to acquit herself in a comic role that is all-but-designed to steal the show.  And whoever is responsible for styling Ms. Murphy's hair into a "what-the-hell-is-going-on-on-her-head" arrangement should be sent to the Cook County Jail without benefit of a trial.

Fortunately for P.O.P., they have an exemplary performer (with substantially better hair) in the role of Roxie Hart:  Bethany Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald is a can't-miss charmer who captures the essence of the flapper-turned-felon-turned-famemonger.  Blessed with a face that seems right out of the Prohibition Era, she nails her songs and her laugh lines.  Fitzgerald's performance never falters and her "We Both Reached for the Gun" was the best that I have had the good fortune to see.

Aside from its two lead killer-dillers, Chicago has a fully-stocked speakeasy of memorable secondary characters.  Doug LeBelle plays the usually-slick lawyer Billy Flynn with a much rougher edge than normal.  Although advertised as the "silver-tongued prince of the courtman," LeBelle opts to turn Flynn into a brusque bruiser of a bully.  It is a choice that serves the character, but not necessarily his songs, well.  Keisha Gilles' "Mama" Morton is certainly the sexiest prison matron I have ever seen.  Gilles manages to be funny and menacing, with a swinging truncheon and a bludgeoning set of pipes. 

Another strong set of pipes belong to Rick Fountain, Jr., who plays Amos Hart, Roxie's mousy, put-upon husband.  At once sweet and pathetic, Fountain knocks Amos's one number "Mr. Cellophane" out of the park.   The secondary roles are rounded out by Thao Nguyen in the role of the patsy reporter, Mary Sunshine.   Blessed with a lovely falsetto, Nguyen can certainly sing the pants off the role and its one big number, "A Little Bit of Good."  Unfortunately, Nguyen's operatic diction accompanied with the acoustic challenges of the space render only a portion of the performance intelligible.  Nguyen never actually seems to be a reporter and costumer Erin Kacmarcik's decision to glam up Mary Sunshine ends up undercutting the character's goody-two-shoes image.   Conversely, the costumer's choice to put Matron "Mama" Morton in a sexy pin-striped jacket with matching shorts makes her character's butch come-ons less matronly and much more sexually threatening.  In short, the shorts work.

Kacmarcik's other costume designs adhere strictly to the Broadway production's iconic mix of black tights, exposed flesh and dancer-meets-hooker wear for the ensemble.   The singing and dancing ensemble works their collective tight buns off in the various roles they are assigned, particularly the men during "Roxie" and the women during "The Cell Block Tango."  Two young stars-in-the-making caught this reviewer's eye:  the reed-thin Spencer Pond and the curvaceous and comely Laura Helm.   Keep your eyes out for these two up-and-comers.

Director and choreographer Darlene Zoller does a very good job of making her production of Chicago  a facsimile of the long-running revival.  Her choreography borrows quite heavily from the original Fosse and Ann Reinking's reimagining, particularly the show-closing "Hot Honey Rag" which is almost a step-for-step rip.  Zoller makes excellent use of the small three-quarter thrust space and effectively turns Ryan Bell's Spartan mix of decking and Tim Hache's lighting into a smoky nightclub atmosphere.  As Artistic Director of P.O.P. one might have hoped that Zoller would have sought to put more of her company's own stamp on Chicago.  The Oscar-winning film wisely mixed the 1920s period with the revival's cynical sexuality creating a hybrid of the old and new.  Yet, this is a minor complaint as the current New York revival of Chicago is pretty much one of the finest stage creations I have ever witnessed and Playhouse on Park's mounting delivers a thrilling dose of heat.  Just be sure to have an ice cream before checking out the show. 

Photo by Rich Wagner

 

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