Chicago at the Mahaffey Theatre Review

I think the Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation of "Chicago" is the best movie musical from the past 20 years.

(Sorry, "Moulin Rouge" fans - the movie turns out to be terrific, but the first 20 minutes are a scorching hot mess and almost impossible for anyone who’s watching the movie for the first time to follow without activating the subtitles on the DVD. However, I’m more than willing to hear your own nominees ["Sweeney Todd"? "South Park"?] for the crown in the comments if you want to talk about it.)

After finally seeing the show on stage at the Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg two weeks ago, I’m even more impressed by the movie. Rob Marshall - who has an extensive stage background - directed the film adaptation and brought a lot of visual touches from the original stage show (which I can now appreciate) without ever having the movie feel like it was trapped by the Broadway production. More importantly, screenwriter Bill Condon came up with the genius conceit of the musical numbers taking place inside of Roxie Hart’s head to explain why the hell people were bursting out into song.

But enough about the movie, I’m here to talk about the impressive stage production I saw recently.

In case you don’t know, "Chicago" is the John Kander/Fred Ebb Broadway music set during the Prohibition era in the titular city. It tells the satirical story of two fame-hungry murderesses and the sleazy lawyer that gets the public to love them. The Broadway musical debuted in 1975, but the show is still absolutely relevant today, which explains why the 1996 edition holds the record for longest-running revival in Broadway history.

The production we saw featured some truly stunning performances. No wonder since, as I flip through my program here, I see that most of the cast has done "Chicago" on Broadway and in Europe. My girlfriend Erica and I caught a Sunday afternoon performance in a theatre that was about half empty (good news for us because we got to sit closer, baseball game-style!). However, the performances on stage - which COULD have been phoned in - were most certainly not.

My favorite actor was Bryn Dowling as Roxie Hart, who brought expert playfulness, cluelessness and skill to the role of a wannabe. Terra MacLeod, on the other hand, was more of a force of nature as the divalicious Velma Kelly. Still, I think she could’ve gone even bigger in the role and made the character a truly enviable, don’t-EVER-take-your-eyes-off-me presence. Jason Patrick Sands made for a wonderfully sleazy (and unexpectedly dark) Billy Flynn, while still keeping just enough enough charm.

The lead actors also had terrific support. Ron Orbach was utterly heartbreaking and charming in the heartbreaking and charming role of Amos Hart (though I may be biased, since "Mr. Cellophane" is my favorite song in the musical). Meanwhile, Carol Woods was the first person to truly bring the house down (and people to their feet) with her roof-rattling rendition of "When You’re Good to Mama."

The rest of the ensemble was also impressive and the pace was brisk throughout. I also loved how the orchestra conductor as incorporated into the storyline a few times.

My only complaint about the show is that, unless you knew the show’s storyline, it was kind of difficult to follow what was happening. (A slight case of "Moulin Rouge"-itis.) Scenes sometimes jarringly transitioned from one to the next and, since most of the ensemble was dressed in all black, sometimes it was hard to distinguish between the minor characters.

Overall, it was fun to see one of my favorite movie musicals on stage in a production that featured a couple of great performances.

Chicago...A-