Kander and Ebb's 'Chicago' is a musical theatre staple and has become one of the most popular and most performed shows for both professionals and amateurs worldwide. It's "Teen Edition" (which this was due to the cast being teenagers) is however very tame and does not have the same punch as the standard show does. That's a real shame, since the whole essence of this musical is the gutsy sexual pleasure derived from being bad; whether that be killing someone or conning people out of money. Strip away that sexual element and you are left with a cast dressed in sexy black lingerie but not knowing or understanding why (so it looks and feels a little awkward at times from some); a butch lesbian being turned into an astute businesswoman, and characters that don't really have any direction to them anymore, and a lawyer who needs nothing more than his extortionate fee, making a mockery of his song, ''All I Need Is Love'. Needless to say, I have never seen the 'teen edition' of this show before, but do not wish to ever again.
Director Kathleen Valentine (along with choreographers Lauren Cowle, Kay Valentine, and James Goodwin), certainly put the cast through their paces, borrowing most of the show's ideas and dance moves from many of the professional productions, with particular reference to the original choreographer, Bob Fosse. I have often wondered if a production of 'Chicago' could ever be staged without his influence, but I have yet to see one. The set was mostly a bare stage with the lighting design doing a lot of the heavy lifting. In addition there were 6 sets of moveable prison bars, and several chairs. Mostly this worked well, but seeing the stage management team moving them at times was off putting, when the cast did most of the moving, why could they not do all of it? The LX design (Chris Osborne and Kay Valentine) was interesting but not optimal. using bright lights to shine directly into the audience is an effect that should be used sparingly. However here using it for the gun shots at the beginning simply did not work, and the extended hanging of Hunyak sequence was far too long to have those lights in our faces. There were times when we really needed to see the cast members' faces, and they were in shadow, and the idea of moving the spots for Amos's solo (Mr Cellophane) rather diminished the final effect and had the audience laughing - wrong emotion sadly. It was therefore rather a mixed bag creatively, with some truly great ideas which worked well - I loved the puppetry for 'We Both Reached For The Gun' for example, but the whole show this evening felt a little like a very proficient dress rehearsal. The cast were still a little unsure of the space and size of the stage, and some of the entrances / exits were a little awkward (as well as noisy chair moving). They coped adroitly however with both the microphone glitches in act one, and the couple of unfortunate costume malfunctions.
Freya Gow and Tabitha Valentine (Velma Kelly and Roxie hart respectively) worked well together and I enjoyed their interpretations of these roles. Their "Keeping It Hot" number was for me one of the show's highlights. Marcus Florin as Billy Flynn, played the greasy lawyer for all its worth, and created a hard-nosed money-grabbing character which worked well for him. Elise Brown-Kufur was a glamorous businesswoman who, despite being in charge of the county jail, had a good side hustle in fleecing the inmates out of their money for so-called favours, and again, this interpretation worked for her, and I enjoyed her mellifluous singing voice. Thomas Birch played Amos Hart, and for me at least, he was too noticeable! Starting too strong with his opening dialogue, it was much more difficult for him to tell us all that he was always overlooked. A talented individual nonetheless.
The cell block five this evening were the cell block ten, since each of these roles was doubled up. I am not entirely sure who and who did what, it was impossible to tell their onstage appearance from their programme photos, however, it seemed to work quite well and not detract too much from their characterisations. And whichever of the two girls played the speaking Hunyak this evening, the Hungarian sounded like a native. What might have worked a little better in the Cell Block Tango number was for the second cast to sing the counterpoint? - Just a thought.
Overall a very proficient and enjoyable show performed by a company of 22 energetic, dedicated and talented young people.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 2.12.25
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