I attended a production of Chicago at the Tennessee Preforming Arts Center’s Andrew Johnson Theatre on March 18, 2016 at 7:30 PM. I chose to see this play for a couple of reasons. The fist reason is because it was free and secondly because my cousin, Neely Scott, is in the play. She plays the Hungarian lady, Hunyak. I arrived at the theatre early enough to walk around because | wanted to soak in the whole experience. There were many people at the theater that night, most of whom were going to watch Phantom of the Opera, dressed in a variety of ways.
They were wearing everything from suits and ties to shorts and tee shirts. I was escorted by an usher into a room with a thrust stage in the middle with bleachers in front and tables and chairs on the sides. At first there were only about fifty people, but by the time that the small orchestra stopped warming up by playing some jazz music and the lights went down to begin the play, there were about two hundred people sitting all around the stage. The patrons seemed to be of a variety of different demographics with the slight majority being middle aged caucasian men and women.
The play is about a young woman, Roxie Hart, who enjoys sleeping around on her husband. She shoots one of her many lovers for walking out on her and convinces her husband Amos that the victim was a burglar. Amos gladly takes the blame for the murder until he discovers that the victim was sleeping with his wife, and he comes clean. Roxie is sent to jail where she meets Velma Kelly who is a former vaudeville performer with aspirations to get back to the spotlight, Mama who oversees the jail and takes bribes in exchange for getting media attention for the inmates, and other murderesses.
Velma is annoyed because Roxie is stealing her spotlight and her very expensive and corrupt lawyer, Billy Flynn. She tries to convince Roxie that they should put on a sister act show on vaudeville when they get out, but her offer is turned down. The first thing Billy does after taking Roxie’s case is spinning her story so that she has a positive public image. Roxie decides the best thing she can do for herself is fake being pregnant, and Billy convinces Amos that the baby is his.
During one of Billy’s visit to the jail, Velma shows him some of her ideas for her upcoming trial that are stolen by Roxie. Billy is able to get Roxie acquitted, but as soon as the verdict is returned, another exciting crime is committed, and all of the press rushes out of the room. Billy also leaves her, but Amos stays. He is glad that his wife is free and very excited about the baby. When Roxie reveals that there is no baby, Amos finally leaves her. Roxie teams up with Velma in the sister act show she had previously turned down to end the show.
I enjoyed the play as a whole. I liked the fact that the conductor, Jason Tucker, was part of the play and set up some of the scenes, and the music sounded like it could have been coming from a 1920s Jazz club, and it had an authentic sound because it was being played by a live band. The songs were probably my favorite part of the play because they broke up the slow movement and added some excitement and action.
I would have enjoyed the play much more if I had elected to see a different play because I did not like the sexual content oft he play nor the very skimpy costumes, but they did fit with the concept of the play. I believe the costume designer, Trish Clark, did a fantastic job at making the costumes in a way that made the many costumes changes as easy as possible by only adding or removing a coat or accessories which was a great idea since there was not a lot of time between scenes to change. I really enjoyed the play because the audience gets to see the cast’s many days of hard work and practice all come together to make a fantastic performance.
One of the parts that I think is the best is the fast paced songs where the dancing involves a lot of close action between the characters where if one person messes up, it is going to throw everybody off. Another one is the technical aspect of blocking, where everyone stands on stage. This is to me the best part because I see what the choreographer and director want me to see. My favorite seen from the play was the courtroom sequence. I liked it because it had a lot of movement and action from the whole cast.