OH, BROTHER! Any red-blooded male visiting the musical Chicago at the Empire will probably be in need of a cold shower afterwards. And the ladies will have had their eyefuls, too.
The show based on the original production by the late director/ choreographer Bob Fosse is just about the sexiest on stage.
Girls in tiny dresses and chaps in tight trousers gyrate, shake and shimmy to one of the most suggestive scores ever written while the story – set in 1920s Chicago – is full of witty naughtiness.
Ann Reinking has choreographed the production “in the style of Bob Fosse” and that means lots of slinking around by the performers who hold on to their hats while they make the most of their physical attributes.
With great songs by Fred Ebb and John Kander – Razzle Dazzle, All That Jazz, etc – the based-on-fact plot follows the stories of two female killers and their court attempts to get off with the help of a flashy lawyer.
Nothing is taken too seriously, least of all the conventions of theatrical musicals. Here the big band is on stage, the performers strut in front of them without benefit of too much scenery. Story, dance and song is all.
Haley Flaherty (replacing the injured Jennifer Ellison) takes the role of Roxie, the new killer on the cell block grabbing all the publicity formerly given to fellow killer Velma (Dawn Spence), much to the latter’s annoyance.
Both Flaherty and Spence also try to outdo each other in the dancing and singing stakes, and the battle is stimulating to watch. Spence has a great voice and endless energy (her number When Velma Takes the Stand is a real song and dance work-out) while Flaherty delivers on the emotional front and shakes a mean hip. When the pair get together at the end, one has to say the result is a draw.
But this is very much an ensemble show with great performances all round.
It’s sassy, fun and hugely enjoyable, and in its current form deserves a place in the Top Ten of musicals.
