Chicago

Perhaps the most seductive musical of all time, Chicago has been setting pulses racing on both sides of the Atlantic for years and recently found a wider fan-base with its conversion into a smash-hit film with Catherine Zeta Jones and Renne Zellweger .

Almost 35 years old, the musical has lost none of its charm nor its edge as its aged and the satire of corruption and the notion of the celebrity criminal almost seems to have more pertinence today than it did when the musical first appeared. Based on a play of the same name, the show tells the story of Roxy Heart, a dancer who murders her partner and then, once inside, gets on the wrong side of Velma Kelly, somewhat of a celebrity after the double murder she committed and who feels that Roxy is going to steal her press. The man behind this celebrity-making of criminals is lawyer Billy Flynn, who knows he’s got a better chance of getting his clients off the hook if he can get the media on his side. This latter idea is shown wonderfully in the hilariously staged song the “Press Conference Rag”

The jail in the show literally becomes the stage where dazzling dance routines and sultry songs are performed; the beginning of the show with the number ‘All that Jazz’, which sees its female inmates and male ensemble cast grinding together as they belt out the classic song, can’t fail to have every single person in the audience more than a little excited. Later songs play more on humour with Mr. Cellophane being a delightful song sung by Roxy’s spurned lover and “When You’re good to Mama” being stuffed with more innuendo’s than you could shake a glittery pair of tap shoes at.

In the show everything becomes a staged theatricality, from the working-over of the press, to even the hanging of one inmate portrayed as though a tightrope act at the end of the wonderful song ‘Cell Block Tango’. In the 1970’s a musical with a nearly entirely female cast, and most certainly a cast carried by its female lead roles, was very brave and that message keeps attracting big names to play the major roles in the show. Everyone from Denise Van Outen to Ashlee Simpson has donned the peroxide wig to play Roxy and every audience which sees the show is all but guaranteed some star quality. Chicago is booking until March 2010, so buy your theatre tickets now.