Peoples Republic of South Devon

All that jazz

September 28th, 2007

Here at the PRSD, we’re quite keen on turning human tragedy into entertainment - add singing, dancing and jazz hands and we’re sold. Our high-kicking, board-stepping reporter Marika Visser took a look at Chicago, coming to Torquay’s Princess Theatre next week. Here’s what she said:

‘A story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery - all those things we hold dear to our hearts’. These opening lines launched a phenomenon: Chicago.

Tabloid darling Velma Kelly is the desirable vaudeville star. Roxie Hart is the cute chorus girl, who dreams of fame on the Twenties stage, and both are murderesses vying for media attention from the Cook County Jail with the help from their shared lawyer, the suave Billy Flynn.

Chicago, the musical, was based on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins and written by the team of Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse with the score composed by John Kander and the lyrics by Fred Ebb.

This UK tour is directed by Walter Bobbie and is choreographed by Ann Reinking, in the distinctive jazz-hands style of Bob Fosse.

Ian Kelsey stars as Billy Flynn, who has appeared in Casualty and Down to Earth (filmed in Dartmouth). The fame-craving Roxie Hart is played by Haley Flaherty (Saturday Night Fever, Thoroughly Modern Millie and Grease on the West End) and Velma Kelly is Dawn Spence, whose other musical roles include Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Cats and the UK tour of Anything Goes.

With loads of awards since it  first opened at the Adelphi Theatre in 1997, the film version picked up six Oscars, including Best Picture and even one for hoofer Catherine Zeta Jones - now that’s going some!

You can catch Chicago at the Princess Theatre Torquay in October 2 -13.

Posted by Marika Visser

Entry Filed under: Arts