| Review: 'Chicago' lives up to reputation Thursday, February 3, 2000 By MAXINE GINSBERG, Staff Writer Put together a half-a-dozen female killers, a slick lawyer, and a venal prison warden, and what have you got? One of the more entertaining musicals to ever light up the Broadway stage. "Chicago" was a hit when it arrived on the scene in the '70s, and it is a hit still, thanks to the unchanging baseness of human nature and the theatrical brilliance of the show's creators. Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse were certainly not the first to make dramatic hay with evil-doers. "Sweeney Todd" is one example of murder played for laughs. But "Sweeney Todd" was set in London, not in one of America's favorite cities, and Todd's plot didn't make sport of a hallowed institution (unless you consider barbering one) the way "Chicago" ridicules the justice system. But Ebb and Fosse wrote the book, based on a 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, with such tongue-in-cheek charm that the lowlife status of the protagonists and the darkness of the premise is engaging rather than repulsive. How ironic that this cynical look at the court system as it worked in the '20s would be the grist for enduring entertainment. The two veteran showmen took the jaundiced view of justice, Chicago-style, and turned it into the razzle-dazzle entertainment its advertising blurbs proclaim. The plot turns on the murder of a lover by a second-rate chorus girl. What should be a tawdry, shameful event is the fodder for sensational publicity. How the heroine and her manipulative lawyer plan to turn the evil deed into a springboard for her career is the story line. The play is funny, musically sound, and blessed with the genius of Fosse's choreography. It would be hard to name another musical that so successfully made dance so major a presence in the story. The performance at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts on Tuesday had the usually undemonstrative audience laughing out loud, and occasionally cheering and whistling. It didn't look as though anyone left the full house at intermission, and everyone actually stayed in the hall until the actors left the stage. That's no small feat for any show, and this one can credit such tribute to a flawless performance. Alan Thicke is the name of note in the cast. Those who know him as a talk show host and television sitcom actor will be surprised at his pleasant baritone and finesse in playing the lawyer. Roxane Carrasco and Tracy Shayne are equally excellent in their roles as wanna-be-celebrity murderers. Both young women are talented dancers, strong singers and capable actresses. Carol Woods couldn't be better as the warden, and M. Agnes makes the most of reporter Mary Sunshine. Lloyd Culbreath drew laughs and sympathy as the hapless husband, and every member of the cast was a pleasure to see. The 14-man band belted out the tuneful, brassy score as though they were entertaining merrymakers in an old-time speakeasy. The staging, though minimal was imaginative; the costumes, though minimal, were effective. This was a first-rate production of a first-rate show. People from Boston should be jealous that there's no musical of this caliber about the old-time political shenanigans in their town. All seven performances of "Chicago" are sold out. |