If you ever catch yourself in NYC with nothing to do, I highly recommend strolling down west 49th street to experience the best musical to ever hit broadway!
Chicago the musical is unlike any other show I’ve seen before, with Dylis Croman bringing the role of Roxie Hart to life alongside the amazing Max Von Essen who is easily the best Billy Flynn I have ever seen!
The show opens with Velma Kelly and the iconic Chicago Overture that transitions into All That Jazz. Unlike the movie, the musical transitions from song to song without all the extra non musical based scenes the movie has which was something I loved as an audience member. This experience was something similar to a concert that told the story of Chicago in the absolute best possible way.
During Velma’s performance we see Roxie Hart enter the stage alongside Fred Casely. The two are clearly drunk and enjoying each other when Casley tells Roxie that he lied about being able to get her in the music industry and in reality has zero connections and is in fact a furniture salesman who just wanted to have fun with her and leave. Upon hearing this she pulls a gun on him and kills him moments before her husband, Amos arrives back from work.
When he arrives, she covers the body and gets him to take the blame for it so when police arrive he starts telling a fake story of him killing a burglar while Roxie slept. Roxie then starts singing “Funny Honey”, a song dedicated to her love for Amos, where she describes how in Amos’ eyes she can do no wrong and how he loves her so. During this song, the police reveal that Fred Casely was the victim leading Amos to connect the dots that he is no burglar, and he gave them 10% off their furniture because Roxie was two timing him. The song ends with Amos calling Roxie a ‘cheap little tramp’ and tells the police the truth about how Casely met his end leading to Roxie’s arrest.
While getting processed in prison, Roxie meets the six merry murderesses of the Cook COunty Jail who then perform the iconic Cell Block Tango. This for me, is one of if not the most iconic piece of theatre, this scene is so beautifully done and each of the six murderesses embodied their characters so well adding a level of personality to this song that the movie lacks.
Shortly after this song we get the introduction to Matron Mama Morton, the woman who oversees murderess row. She goes into a number explaining the system of how to get anything while in Jail is a system called reciprocity leading her into her song, “When You’re Good to Mama” that stresses how good she can be as long as it makes its way back to her.
The ending of “When You’re Good to Mama” leads Mama Morton to recommend lawyer Billy Flynn to represent Roxie’s case, she goes on to build up Mr.Flynn as the greatest lawyer in the state of Illinois and he goes on to sing “All I care about”. This song is definitely at the top of my list in terms of how purely entertaining it is and how Max Von Essen really brings a new energy to the character of Billy Flynn, making him more humanized than he was in the movie. Later in the show Flynn himself even says something along the lines of, if Jesus Christ himself was alive in Chicago today and had the money to afford Flynn, his story would have ended very differently.
After taking Roxie’s case Billy Flynn realizes her husband Amos does not have the money to pay him so he turns her case into somewhat of a media circus with the main reporter being Mary Sunshine who then performs her number ‘A Little Bit of Good’. Soon after, Roxie’s press conference starts and immediately turns into a ventriloquist act with Billy Flynn in complete control of the narrative. This leads us to the most well known song in this entire show; ‘We Both Reached for the Gun.’ Max Von Essen and Dylis Croman performed this number so spectacularly they were given a standing ovation.
Before intermission, Croman takes the stage in her solo performance of ‘Roxie’ and as her number ends Velma Kelly comes onto the stage ready to start her number of desperation called ‘I Can’t do it Alone’ where she tries to convince Roxie to join her in a double-act but to no avail. Separately the woman realize the only one they can count on is themselves and they sing ‘My Own Best Friend’ which ends with intermission.
Act 2 starts with Velma Kellys ‘I Know a Girl’ while Roxie lies to the world about being pregnant to make herself more famous, followed by her own number ‘Me and my Baby’. Roxie’s husband Amos claims paternity of the child but no one notices him leading him to sing ‘Mister Cellophane’, one of my favorite songs in the show. After Amos leaves the stage, Roxie watches as Velma tries to show Flynn her plan for her trial, but he pays Velma no mind and directs all his energy to Roxies trial.
Prior to her trial Roxie shares with Flynn how truly scared she is that she could be hanged for her actions, he reassures her by telling her to give them a good show through the musical number ‘Razzle Dazzle.’ While listening to Roxie’s trial on Mama Morton’s radio, Velma realizes Roxie stole the trial plan Velma had tried sharing with Flynn, leading the two women to sing ‘Class’. Flynn gets Roxie acquitted but as soon as she is, another murder takes place taking Roxies name out of the papers just as fast as it was put in.
The final scene of the show opens to a Vaudeville theatre where Velma and Roxie are performing a double act show together starting with them singing a bittersweet number about what life has become for them (‘Nowadays’). The finale shows the two women performing together happily closing with the song ‘Hot Honey Rag’ and before the curtains close the two thank the audience for the wild ride it took to get them there.
The musical ‘Chicago’ is an iconic piece of theatre that is so wildly entertaining I can’t believe it isn’t more popular. From the comedic timing, to the talented actors to the enthusiasm behind the songs, Chicago is an experience that I will treasure and a musical that I would love to experience again. If I could recommend one experience to those who catch themselves in the Theatre District of Manhattan it would definitely be this.