Timely 'Chicago' sizzles, surprises

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Aug 12, 2003 Source: San Fransisco Chronicle Submitted By: Gina Octavio Roca, Chronicle Dance Critic Friday, August 8, 2003 Chicago: Musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb, directed by Walter Bobbie, choreographed by Ann Reinking after Bob Fosse; starring Brenda Braxton, Bianca Marroquin and Kevin Richardson. (At the Golden Gate Theater, 1 Taylor at Market, through Aug. 24. Tickets: $43-$85. Call (415) 512-7770 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.) Welcome back to "Chicago,' where the gin's cold, the piano's hot, the dancing's even hotter and all that jazz. Has the show, which opened Wednesday night at the Golden Gate Theater, just gotten better? The dances are at least as good as ever, even if Walter Bobbie's brilliant concert version seems a little laid back dramatically and some of the stars could do with a little more wattage. Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys brings little stage presence to Billy Flynn, a role he will take to London in the fall. Still, the strapping Richardson, though a tad young for the part, suggests a seductive vulnerability at the heart of Billy's lawyerly oiliness. Ultimately it works. Brenda Braxton may not erase memories of great Velmas we have seen, but her brassiness carries its own surprises. Bianca Marroquin, a real pre-Madonna, boasts an almost innocent tawdriness and brings a refreshing gamine quality to Roxie Hart's need for fame. Marroquin is a real find who eerily brings to mind the young Shirley MacLaine and Michele Lee. Her Roxie is a slightly bruised, still tasty peach. Flanked by Eddie Bennet and Steven Sofia in the show-stopping "Me and My Baby," Marroquin's Roxie goes a long way to explain the show's success. Then there is the alarming timeliness of "Chicago." This much is true: Getting away with murder and baring your soul to the press -- two big themes of "Chicago" -- are much closer to common coin today than in 1975, when "Chicago" lost out in awards and popularity to the definitive '70s musical "A Chorus Line." "Chicago," with its tabloid journalists and slimy attorneys, murderous tootsies and a jailhouse full of nasty girls and dirty boys in the Roaring Twenties, strikes closer and closer to home with the passing years. The lioness' share of the credit must go to Ann Reinking, Bob Fosse's last muse and a choreographer of considerable stage wisdom. What started out as a City Center Encores concert version of "Chicago" has achieved the sort of international success with Reinking's choreography that the 1975 Fosse production never saw: sold-out houses in New York, London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Mexico City (where Marroquin starred as Roxie), Moscow and Milan, with international awards to match and now a return San Francisco engagement. "Chicago" is hot. It is also very, very good. The crucial difference between the 1975 production and the current show is Reinking. John Kander's gorgeous, steamy score and Fred Ebb's saucy lyrics remain deliciously intact, and Bobbie's direction strays not too far from the original's intentions. But the sizzling, sexy moves bear this dance credit: "choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse." That is only half the truth. Reinking's "Chicago" is the exception to too many Fosse-flavored dances that have flourished since his death. The raw outlines of the Fosse style, with none of its sophisticated sexiness, dominate music videos and award shows today and are in danger of staining the fabric of Broadway dance. The Fosse style is easy to copy and easier still to vulgarize. Even when Fosse was alive, his own choreography tended to fall apart on the road. Reinking's "Chicago," staged here by Gary Chryst, is something else. From the opening "All That Jazz," the genius of Fosse lives at the Golden Gate. A kick, a slap or a finger snap, a pelvic thrust and a provocative pose, the syncopated gyrations of a clump of sexy dancers moving as a single gorgeous force: These are the marks of the Fosse style, alongside liberating body stretches that connect the dots between over-the-shoulder glances and simple moments of stillness that suggest the wickedest thoughts. Though preserved on film in pictures like "The Pajama Game," "Sweet Charity" and especially "Cabaret," -- and decidedly not in the synthetic dance numbers of the film version of "Chicago" -- Fosse moves also have become diluted and vulgarized by many of his followers. For all its in-your-face assurance, Fosse's style is a fragile thing. Reinking knows that. For that alone, her "Chicago" is a gift. Brenda Braxton, Kevin Richardson and Bianca Marroquin: At the after-party Comment on this item. 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