Sultry CHICAGO proves every
jailbird has a song—and dance
The 1920s era of flappers, speakeasies, and red-hot jazz comes roaring back when the touring Broadway musical CHICAGO, which proves that with the right song and dance you can get away with murder, comes to Penn State’s Eisenhower Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 1. Greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, treachery, and a couple of killings are the cornerstones of the razzle-dazzle winner of six Tony Awards.
Based on Maurine Dallas Watkins’ 1926 play—inspired by actual events—CHICAGO revolves around Roxie Hart, a nightclub dancer who dreams of starring in vaudeville. When her lover threatens to leave her, Hart kills him and tries to get Amos, her gullible husband, to take the blame. Her plan fails, and she’s sent to the slammer. But she eventually persuades her heartsick spouse to front the money to hire Chicago's shrewdest defense attorney. The lawyer, Billy Flynn, turns her crime of passion into celebrity headlines, and Roxie becomes the toast of Chicago—until the crimes of others shine the limelight elsewhere. A plot synopsis appears below.
Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb—the creative team behind Cabaret and Kiss of the Spider Woman—and co-author/director Bob Fosse(Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity) created CHICAGO, which opened on Broadway in 1975 and attained moderate success in a run of 898 performances. The rewritten Broadway revival, on which this tour from Troika Entertainment is based, has been an unprecedented hit. The show has been running for twelve years, a record for a Broadway revival.
The 2002 film adaptation, starring Renée Zellweger as Hart, Richard Gere as Flynn, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly (a vaudeville performer who shoots her sister after finding her in bed with Kelly’s husband), was a box office and critical success. The movie earned half a dozen Oscars, including the statues for best picture and best supporting actress (Zeta-Jones).
Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis. Audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available for this performance at no extra charge to ticket holders.
CHICAGO
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, October 1
Eisenhower Auditorium
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Adult $55, $49
University Park Student $40, $34
18 and Younger $50, $44
CHICAGO synopsis
Act I
After the overture we meet Velma Kelly, the remaining half of a sister-sister vaudeville act whose other half Velma shot, along with her own husband, when she caught them together in bed. Velma introduces us to the other “heroine” of our story, Roxie Hart, in “All That Jazz.” We see how Roxie murdered her lover, nightclub regular Fred Casely, when he tried to walk out on her.
Roxie convinces Amos, her nonentity of a husband, that she shot a burglar and that Amos should take the rap because he will be “sure to get off.” Roxie praises Amos in “Funny Honey,” but Amos realizes at the police station that he has been had. He sings like a canary, and Roxie is left to fend for herself at the Cook County Jail.
Roxie meets her cellmates and learns about their crimes in “Cell Block Tango.” Their prison is run by “Mama” Morton, a matron who thrives on a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” system (“When You’re Good to Mama”). Mama and Velma have been scratching each other, with Mama helping Velma gain notoriety for her crime to aid her eventual return to vaudeville.
A rivalry begins between Velma and Roxie, who realizes she needs publicity. Roxie convinces Amos to put up $5,000 to hire Velma’s big-shot lawyer, Billy Flynn, who enters singing “All I Care About.” Billy knows Roxie’s story must be altered to appeal to the press.
Sensing her decline, Velma tries to coerce Roxie into replacing her sister in the old act, even demonstrating some of her old moves in “I Can’t Do It Alone.” Roxie and Velma, both alone in their dwindling glamour, realize they will have to take care of themselves (“My Own Best Friend”). Roxie hatches the idea of reclaiming the media spotlight by telling the world she’s expecting a baby.
Act II
Velma welcomes the audience back, after the entr’acte, with “Hello, Suckers!” She is astounded at everything Roxie is getting away with (“I Know a Girl”). Roxie, meanwhile, is selling her baby story to the press (“Me and My Baby”). Amos tries to claim the baby as his offspring, but no one pays any attention, as usual—a fact he laments in “Mr. Cellophane.” Velma tries to win back the attention of Billy by showing him what she will do “When Velma Takes the Stand.”
Billy takes Roxie’s case to trial and easily wins her acquittal. Roxie’s freedom is also the end of her popularity, as a more recent crime garners the media’s attention. She realizes her time in the spotlight is over and sings about the life awaiting her as a free woman (“Nowadays”). She makes the best of her old popularity by teaming with Velma in the sister act. She and Velma entertain whatever public they have left with their “Hot Honey Rag.” The show closes as the rest of the company joins these “living examples of what a wonderful country this is” for the finale.
