Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✭✩✩
music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, book by Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse, directed by Walter Bobbie
Mirvish Productions, Canon Theatre, Toronto
September 24-October 19, 2003
This is Chicago's third visit to Toronto, its first since the film based on it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The DVD is about the price of the cheapest seat at the Canon Theatre--so why see it "live"?
The one reason above all is Bob Fosse's and Ann Reinking's justly celebrated choreography. This, not the plot, is the revival's raison d'être. The athletic touring company is slick and precise. Every kick, bounce, flex and swivel is both a come on and a dare. Rob Marshall's film choreography is a pale imitation of Fosse and marred by too much editing. Besides, only on stage do you hear the third of the music missing from the film including two of the cleverer numbers, "A Little Bit of Good" and "Class."
Admiration for film stars who can sing and dance a little crumbles before the talent of a real singer-dancer like Brenda Braxton as Velma. She combines intensity and poise with a strong, warm voice and detailed attention to lyrics. Her "All That Jazz" sizzles; Zeta-Jones's is merely arch. As Billy Flynn, Gregory Harrison is a true song-and-dance man who catches perfectly the show's blend of glitz and cynicism.
On the minus side Walter Bobbie's direction turns murderess and would-be star Roxie Hart into a cartoonish idiot. Bianca Marroquin further degrades the character with aggressive cutsiness and a singing voice like one of The Chipmunks. Marcia Lewis Bryan's warblings as Mama Morton could curdle milk. And R. Bean's flouncy Mary Sunshine is simply embarrassing.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-10-02.
Photo: Brenda Braxton (centre) and cast of Chicago. ©2003 Paul Kolnik.
2003-10-02
Chicago