15-20 at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center's Academy of Music.Ĭhicago won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 1997 as well as awards for actors Bebe Neuwirth and James Naughton, director Walter Bobbie, lighting designer Ken Billington and choreographer Ann Reinking. 8-13 at Atlanta's Fabulous Fox Theatre and Sept. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.Īs previously reported, Springer will also play Flynn Sept. Springer joins a cast that currently includes Amra-Faye Wright as Velma Kelly, Bianca Marroquin as Roxie Hart, Raymond Bokhour as Amos Art, Roz Ryan as Matron "Mama" Morton and R. The former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant will not play Mondays, Aug. 95, will play slick lawyer Billy Flynn, the role created in this revival by Tony winner James Naughton, through Sept.
on the Riverside City College campus, Riverside WHERE: Landis Performing Arts Center, 4800 Magnolia Ave. Alas, that gleam may blind us from the truth. It all happens fast with precision, a precision that craves another week of performances to allow a show to a gleam.
Lusciously physical, richly staged, fabulously lighted to drive a point, masterfully choreographed to juxtapose the exotic and the mundane - Roxie’s “Funny Honey” comes to mind - and blatantly raw, “Chicago” works up to “Razzle Dazzle” with Webb as Billy putting Elmer Gantry to shame, throwing truth and justice under the bus in defense of Roxie - or was it his ego? A surreal quality pervaded as the entire company swelled to the front then retreated to the back stage and back again, like ocean waves on the beach, constant motion distracting attention from what we think is real. Scott Smith’s outstanding orchestra, perched high above the action onstage, joined the visual fray with asides and reactions. Sands’ Mary Sunshine - the cheery newspaper reporter who sees only rose-colored goodness - with fluttering eyelids and trembling lips and a grandly exaggerated campy voice, who tempted the unsuspecting audience to bring down the house with “A Little Bit of Good.” Jamie Snyder’s unassuming and clueless Amos (or is it Andy?) Hart - especially his simply-sung song “Mister Cellophane” - provided a reprieve from all the driving bluster.įor all that talent oozing from the show, it was R.C. Although she opened the show with a tepid dance to “All That Jazz,” she gathered steam as the show roared on to a monumental performance in “I Can’t Do It Alone,” with sensual, exaggerated dance moves and a musical and powerful voice. The cast unrelentingly flings this notion at the audience with spectacular singing and ambitious dancing in the Bob Fosse style, best done with long legs, arms, fingers and a boatload of energy.Īyelet Firstenburg as Velma shined as a prime example of all of the above. The metaphor reveals its own version of the truth. But we don’t, being razzle-dazzled by the tight, swirling cacophony of singing and dancing and verbal exchanges going on right in front of us on multiple levels of three tiers of staging.
If we want to see what goes on back stage in a theater, we can.
It’s all a show.Īnd that, coming from a Broadway musical where nothing is what it appears to be.ĭirector Matt Neves completely exposes the stage and backstage and never drops the curtain. If you believe the through-line driving Performance Riverside’s production, “Chicago,” you’ll agree that no one cares about the truth.
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