Topic: musicals

Roxy rocks with ‘Chicago’

By Christine Anne Piesyk | July 26, 2007 |

From the first shimmy of a garter and stocking-clad leg, the lingerie-laden Roxy production of Bob Fosse’s Chicago romps across the stage with vaudevillian style that both charms and delights.

The show opens with a disclaimer that “all costumes have accidentally landed in North Dakota,” which literally sets the stage for a classic Fosse opener: scantily clad dancers in bustiers, garters and sex appeal moving in the exotic angular motions that characterize Foss’s distinctive choreography. The opening number, All That Jazz, sets this vaudevillian stage for jazz singer Velma Kelly’s (Harmony Livingston) arrest for the murder of her husband and sister, and introduces the city’s aspiring showgirl and newest murderess, Roxie Hart (Allyson Jean Malandra), who just offed a lying lover.

Both women land on “murderers row” in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, in the care of Morton (Kara Haynes), prison matron whose hands are greased with payola. With the wheels of justice well lubed, we are gifted with lawyer Billy Flynn (Scott Ramsey), who job is to find a way, any way, to help his obviously guilty female clients get away with murder. He’s good at it. «Read the rest of this article»

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