CHICAGO
13/09/2018 - 23/09/2018
Production Details
Killer hit musical CHICAGO set to razzle dazzle
Auckland and Wellington in 2018
A nightclub singer, a double-murderess, a smooth-talking lawyer and a cell block of sin….. so the story unfolds in the award-winning Broadway and West End musical CHICAGO, which comes to New Zealand in August 2018 and opens at The Civic in Auckland before moving to the Opera House in Wellington in September.
Winner of six Tonys, two Oliviers, one Grammy, two Baftas and six Academy Awards, CHICAGO is the longest-running musical revival in Broadway history and truly is “The sharpest, slickest show on the block” (The Times, UK).
CHICAGO has everything that makes Broadway and the West End great – a universal tale of fame, fortune and all that jazz; one show-stopping song after another, including Razzle Dazzle, Cell Block Tango and All That Jazz; the sexiest, most sensational dancing; and a sharply sophisticated set which incorporates the 11-piece orchestra.
It’s no surprise that this devilishly delicious musical has brought cheering audiences to their feet all around the world, from Australia to Argentina, from Spain to South Africa. An estimated 31 million people have seen CHICAGO, which has played over 30,000 performances worldwide.
“Sexy, pin-sharp, and near flawless.”
– THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA
Set in the Prohibition-era 1920s, CHICAGO is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer with ambitions of Vaudeville stardom, who maliciously murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today’s tabloids.
CHICAGO is a stunning spectacle full of social satire, intrigue, love, betrayal, rivalry and friendship, a pageant of music and dance that adroitly shifts between reality and fantasy, as Roxie Hart’s world moves from prison to the courtroom to the stage.
James Cundall, Chief Executive of Lunchbox Theatrical Productions says “CHICAGO is one of the world’s most popular musicals. Unbelievably sexy, sassy and sensational, this musical thrills and chills, which is why it continues to tour the world after so many years and has been applauded by millions of people. So whether you’ve seen the Academy Award-winning film and want to experience the show live on stage, or whether you have seen it before and want to recapture the magic, here’s your chance. It would be a crime to miss it.”
“Still the hottest show in town” – THE INDEPENDENT, UK
CHICAGO was first created by the legendary Broadway trio of John Kander (music), Fred Ebb (book/lyrics) and Bob Fosse (co-author, original director and choreographer) in 1975, and was based on a 1926 Broadway play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist from the Chicago Tribune who had covered the sensational trials of two women, both of whom were accused of killing their lovers whilst under the influence of drink and jazz.
Kander and Ebb enjoyed a collaboration that spanned four decades, defined musical theatre on Broadway and earned them numerous awards. Bob Fosse was one of Broadway’s biggest and brightest creative stars, renowned for his innovative and spectacular staging, with the emphasis on exhilarating dance sequences. He turned out one hit after another from the 1950s to the late 70s and is the only director so far to have won an Oscar, two Tony Awards and an Emmy Award in the same year, 1973.
“The most exciting musical of its generation” – – THE TIMES, UK
In November 1996 a revival of CHICAGO opened on Broadway produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, and a year later opened in London’s West End. The rest, as they say, is history, as CHICAGO is currently playing its 21st year in New York where it holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the second longest-running musical in Broadway history. In the West End CHICAGO ran for 15 years where it also became the longest-running musical revival as well as the longest-running Broadway musical to play in the West End. The show’s global success has reached over 35 countries and been translated into 13 languages.
SEASON DETAILSxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AUCKLAND
The Civic
From 25 August
Tuesday 6:30pm | Wednesday – Friday 7:30pm | Saturday 2:30pm & 7:30pm | Sunday 1pm & 5pm
Tickets from Ticketmaster
WELLINGTON
The Opera House
13 – 23 September 2018
Tuesday 6:30pm | Wednesday – Friday 7:30pm | Saturday 2:30pm & 7:30pm | Sunday 1pm & 5pm
Tickets from Ticketmaster
Book at Ticketmaster.co.nz. More details at Chicagomusical.co.nz.
CAST
(in order of appearance)
Go-to-Hell Kitty BRITTANE VAN LOGGERENBERG
Velma Kelly SAMANTHA PEO
Roxie Hart CARMEN PRETORIUS
Fred Casely FERDINAND GERNANDT
Sergeant Fogarty THAMSANQA NJOKO
Amos Hart GRANT TOWERS
Liz TANDI GAVIN
Annie NATASHA VAN DER MERWE
June LESEGO VAN NIEKERK
Hunyak DIANI GERNANDT
Mona RAQUEL MUNN
Matron ‘Mama’ Morton ILSE KLINK
Billy Flynn JONATHAN ROXMOUTH
Mary Sunshine K J HAUPT
Doctor HUGO MADELEYN
The Jury CRAIG ARNOLDS
Aaron JARRYD NURDEN
Bailiff MICHAEL FULLARD
The Judge THAMSANQA NJOKO
Martin Harrison SIBUSISO MXOSANA
Clerk MICHAEL FULLARD
McVickers FERDINAND GERNANDT
SWINGS
JENNA ROBINSON CHILD, ALEXANDRA GIRARD, DARREN GREEFF, STEPHAN VAN DER WALT
BAND
Musical Director BRYAN SCHIMMEL
Piano / Assistant MD KEVIN KRAAK
Banjo / Mandolin KUBA SILKIEWICZ
Double Bass GRAHAM STRICKLAND
Tuba SHAUN WILLIAMS
Drums / Percussion LUCA DE BELLIS
Trumpet 1 MIKE BLAKE
Trumpet 2 MICHAEL MAGNER
Trombone ZBIGNIEW “SPEEDY” KOBAK
Reed 1 WILLIAM HENDRICKS
Reed 2 CAMRON ANDREWS
Reed 3 LEAGH RANKIN TECHNICAL STAFF
Scenic Design John Lee Beatty
Costume Design William Ivey Long
Lighting Design Ken Billington
Choreographer Original New York Production Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse
Director Original New York Production Walter Bobbie
Associate Director Tânia Nardini
Original Sound Design Rick Clarke Sound Design Recreated by Matt Grounds
Script Adaptation David Thompson
Executive Producer – Worldwide Alecia Parker
Executive Producer – South Africa Hazel Feldman
Original Production Directed and Choreographed by Bob Fosse
Orchestrations Ralph Burns
Vocal Arrangements Rob Fisher
Dance Music Arrangements Peter Howard
Tour Musical Supervisor Bryan Schimm
Company Manager PETER TAYLOR
Resident Director PHILIP GODAWA
Production Stage Manager MERLE GIDEON
Deputy Stage Manager AMY HARRIS
Assistant Stage Manager / Rigger LOUIS YANG
Head Mechanist ENRICO CLOETE
Mechanist ALLAN PETERSEN
Head of Sound TOM MEEHAN
Sound Number 2 JEFFREY THOMSON
Sound Number 3 THEMBANI MATSHABANE
Chief Electrician GLENN DUNCAN
Deputy Electrician MOEGAMAT CLOETE
Assistant Electrician / Follow Spot PEARL MDLETSHE
Head of Wardrobe SUE DANIELS
Assistant Wardrobe NASEBA DANIELS
Head of Wigs ELZARIE BOTHA
Wardrobe & Wigs Assistant IRENE MABENA UNDERSTUDIES
for Roxie Hart DIANI GERNANDT, ALEXANDRA GIRARD
for Velma Kelly: RAQUEL MUNN, JENNA ROBINSON CHILD
for Billy Flynn FERDINAND GERNANDT, JARRYD NURDEN
for Mama Morton NATASHA VAN DER MERWE, ALEXANDRA GIRARD
for Amos Hart STEPHAN VAN DER WALT, HUGO MADELEYN
for Mary Sunshine J NURDEN, D GREEFF
Theatre , Musical ,
This thing moves!
Review by Dave Smith 15th Sep 2018
Lunchbox Productions have done us the mighty favour of bringing this admittedly elderly but jaw-droppingly good show to Wellington. Chicago is pretty surefire stuff. With the Kander-Ebb-Fosse lineup that that first put these glorious lyrics, tunes and dancing into place in 1975 it is no surprise to see how many productions there have been worldwide in only the last 20+ years. They are all lovingly set out on a world map inside the excellent show programme. On that touring map, Chicago looks less like a musical than a pandemic.
Set in roaring twenties Chicago the plot foreshadows Tarantino’s Natural Born Killers: a degraded world of no-goods and low-lifes where crimes of passion are no more than branches of the entertainment and celebrity industries. Royalty with guns.
We are warned in the first moments of Chicago to leave our morals and chintzy societal values at the cloakroom where we can pick them up later. This gig is not for the faint hearted.
The story is well known and needs scant laboring. Brassy Illinois ladies are in the habit of violently knocking off their spouses and live-in toyboys whenever they find them in bed in flagrant circumstances. No matter, the local prison does a nice line in fixing you up with ace lawyer Billy Flynn who always relieves you of $5,000 provided you have a juicy National Enquirer type backstory for him to get his duplicitous teeth into.
Roxie and Velma are the two latest paydays for Billy to joust with. Like two possums caught in the same headlight they have each gunned their way into big trouble – as you do in that toddling town. In Roxie’s case the boyfriend copped three pieces of incoming lead from her and her husband has now decided not to cough for it. Velma had bloodily done for her hubby when she found him canoodling with her sister.
Billy manufactures the legal defences and coaches the ladies in how to emote to the jury. The problem is that his case docket is way too long and the client pecking order keeps changing as more recent and lurid cases rock up to the turnstile. The most basic skill that a leading lady in Chicago needs to master is that of keeping on dancing as the carpet is ripped from under her.
With all that in mind Carmen Pretorius’s Roxie is a severe case of perfect casting. This slender lightweight blonde is a creature who combines malevolence with perfidy in a manner that suggests that if Donald Trump had a sister this is what she would be like. She believably wins in court and loses in the headlines. What else is new?
Samantha Peo as Velma is a feisty brunette who exudes rugged durability and a spontaneous survival instinct but who gets bumped in the queue when the lubricious Roxie shows up. Ms Peo is a tad less loose-limbed and more limited in the vocal department than her competition but she can sure put the plot ideas across.
Billy is a forensic superstar in monkey suit and Johnathan Roxmouth carries him off to a deliciously bored tee. His ostrich feathers-layered entrance lies somewhere between Liberace and Botticelli. The omnipresent dancers crawl on their bellies like reptiles in advance of his arrival. They are so good I am half expecting Dracula.
Mr Flynn is a cool and bloodless cove who cares not a fig for his clients even if they have a looming date with the rope. He is unmatchable in court but prefers the cut and thrust of press conferences and the front page. But if a saucier case comes in he can even forget his current client’s name. He handles Roxie and Velma like they are valuable bone china he would never hesitate to drop if the need arose.
These are the tightly-knit core cast but Chicago is way more than a row of hooks on which to hang characters and songs. It is an integrated powerhouse of song and dance that has evolved over the years into something rather special that will never date.
The pulsatingly tuneful 11-piece band (largely brass and reeds) and its accompanying team of male and female dancers sets the audience on a glorious ride from the very get-go. Chicago has a standard opener (‘All that Jazz’) that would top any musical finale I’ve ever heard.
It then serves up one impeccably balanced and visually interesting song and dance routine after another. Always with new moods and styles that engage the eye/ear but unerringly advance the action. The choruses are actors who sing and move like angels. Nobody is superfluous. If the acting, stage left, goes quiet the dancing, stage left, stylishly picks up the slack.
Everyone has their own exit and intro music: a fireworks display of the vanities. Glorious entertainment that could never be accused of being heart-warming. Frequent huge ovations punctuate the night.
The staging is flawless. The Wellington Opera House is noted for its depth of stage and it is well used and lit. The cast, coming and going they one does in a jail and court, surrounds the central band dais and hustles the audience with one new idea plot after another. The kinetic result is a show of real and rare quality.
Roxie’s indomitable husband Amos (Grant Towers) has an impressive stage presence as he acts and sings ‘Mister Cellophane’, ironically a song about how he is but an invisible jerk and of no real account. Yeah right.
Ilse Klink muskily oozes out ‘When you’re Good to Mama’for a delirious response normally reserved for divas. Bandleader and narrator Bryan Schimmel could well be starring in his own show next week. Superstardom is catching.
Chicago is a cynical bittersweet offering that flatters no-one. There is no Tony or Maria to sing about the dance tonight at the gym. Annie is decidedly having the night off. We are not improved as people but, perhaps, against our better judgement we are enthralled and energised for over two marvellous hours. A bit like taking a 30-tonne truck for a spin round the hills when you don’t have a driver’s licence. Hey! Chicago’s in town folks. Get down there fast. This thing moves!
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