So begins the musical Chicago - and
creators John Kander, Fred Ebb and
Bob Fosse never back off from that
bold and sinister promise. A promise
they fulfil with wit, danger, dazzle, style
and a great deal of humour. The prickly
delight of Chicago is that the musical is
both showbiz savvy and thematically rich,
so that while it sets toes tapping, it also
entertains the mind.

But first, the story: Roxie Hart, a nightclub
dancer who dreams of headlining in vaudeville, kills
her lover,then convinces her husband to come up
with $5,000 to hire Chicago's shrewdest lawyer, who
ultimately turns her crime into celebrity headlines and
gets his client acquitted. By telling its tale in the sexy,
jazzy style of modern vaudeville, the killers (and
there are five more of them) set out to seduce the
audience as well as the juryThis 1975 musical based
on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins now looks
like it was ripped from today's headlines. In recent years,
America has experienced a new wave of celebrity trials.
The abuses, manipulation of and by the press, and the
complexity of the American judicial system can make
the search for truth and justice seem like different goals.
Chicago's plot was shocking in 1926, cynical and
satirical in 1975, and today feels like a documentary.

The motor of any musical is its score, and Kander and
Ebb have written a "hummer". Each song enhanced
Ralph Burns' brassy jazz band orchestrations, evokes
the 1920s, reveals character, makes us laugh, drives the
story and simultaneously sustains an insistent beat, an
edge which (like its characters) is as desperate to
entertain as it is entertaining. A score of show-stoppers.
Our production had its beginnings at City Center's Encores!
Great American Musical in Concert. It was conceived as an
homage to Bob Fosse, one of the great theatrical minds of any
generation. Rather than reproduce his 1975 Broadway production,
we chose to reawaken its themes by honouring Fosse's
choreographic style, and filling his production with stylistic images
that spanned his brilliant career, from Damn Yankees through
Sweet Charity, Pippin, Cabaret and All That Jazz.

Our minimalist set and lighting reflect Chicago's themes of
entrapment. Less site-specific, the production moves fluidly
not from place to place, but from one emotional context to
the next. The characters in Chicago are trapped - either in
prison and in the legal system, or trapped by their own fame,
lust, greed, ambition. Likewise, our cast is trapped on stage,
the orchestra confined in an exaggerated jury box and our
lighting shadows these images with prison bars and the glamorised solitude of the spotlight. The costumes are as sexually manipulative as any contemporary advertising. Black became the colour - black and of course, skin. And though this production enjoys a conceptual departure from the 1975 Broadway original, stripping Chicago bare has revealed a piece of writing sturdier, richer, funnier and certainly more relevant than ever. I've always loved this show - you be the judge.

ENJOY ... AND ALL THAT JAZZ!