The Playhouse, Edinburgh
Four stars
The chair that sits at the side of the stage with a bowler hat cheekily perched on it as the audience enter the Playhouse isn’t the biggest tease in this latest tour of John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse’s now half-century-old confection of 1920s naughty fun writ large. If ever a show could legitimately be legally decreed to be sex on legs, Chicago’s high-kicking tale of showgirl Roxie Hart’s five minutes of fame after she shoots her lover in cold blood is the one, and we’re not talking about the chair here.
With roots dating back another fifty years or so to reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins’ 1926 stage play based on real life events, Kander, Ebb and Fosse took Watkins’ tabloid friendly true crime caper that already resembled pulp fiction and transformed it into a thrillingly erotic series of backstage set-pieces. The nylon-clad song and dance routines that follow in this recreation of Walter Bobbie’s original 1996 staging and Ann Reinking’s Fosse inspired choreography byTânia Nardiniand Gary Chryst has become the perfect vehicle for prime time TV star turns.
So it goes for these Edinburgh dates, which sees Faye Brookes, late of Coronation Street and Dancing on Ice, step up as Roxie, while Strictly Come Dancing stalwart Kevin Clifton plays singing lawyer Billy Flynn. In a show about the fickleness of fame and what it takes to make the headlines, such considerable high profile pedigrees lend an already arch spectacular another layer of knowingness.
Brookes makes for a sassy and street-smart Roxie, with Clifton bringing a suave presence to Billy. The interplay between Brookes and an equally vivacious Djalenga Scott as Roxie’s archrival Velma Kelly is electric. A word too for a wonderful Brenda Edwards, who is in fine voice as Matron ‘Mama’ Morton. Considerable flesh is put on all this by a vibrant supporting ensemble, who from the opening All That Jazz apply an uber-disciplined largesse to Fosse’s signature moves, jazz hands, jazz legs, jazz everything.
This adds oomph to Fosse and co’s snarlingly cynical showbiz critique, where even a murder and the court case that follows becomes a career opportunity and a chance to razzle-dazzle the watching world. For all Roxie’s blonde ambition, alas, the next big thing will be along any second. But then, such is the way of the curdled American dream, as the play itself tellingly observes. Whatever, Roxie’s losses make for an awesome double act finale with Velma.
After almost thirty years on the hoof, Chicago’s non-stop erotic cabaret has evolved to become a slick, ever regenerating flesh and blood machine that remains a murderously irresistible proposition. This is something Glasgow audiences will discover for themselves in August when Chicago visits the King’s Theatre, with Janette Manrara stepping into Roxie’s heels, and all that jazz that goes with them besides.
The Herald, February 6th 2025
ends
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