BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department will present the popular musical Chicago on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, February 16, 17, and 18 in the BUHS auditorium.
Chicago opened at the 46th St. Theatre, on Broadway, in New York City on June 3, 1975 and ran for 936 performances. Bob Fosse choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show.
The story focuses on two women who are in jail awaiting murder trials. The play on which it was based was written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a Chicago Tribune reporter who covered two sensationalized murder trials in 1924 in which the defendants were women. A prevalent theme of the show is how the press and public opinion are fickle and easily manipulated.
“The 1996 Broadway revival opened on the heels of the O.J. Simpson trial and was thought to be especially relevant to those events,” says producer Mitch Davis. “In 2011-12, we can easily draw parallels to more recent sensationalized trials as well as the national political landscape.”
“The content of Chicago is quite mature,” Davis warns of the show, whose movie version received a PG-13 rating. It includes scenes and discussions of violent murders (none of the scenes or descriptions are particularly graphic). “The characters' attitudes about murder are quite cavalier,” he says.
The show also includes some dialogue that is sexual in nature (not particularly graphic or explicit), Davis notes, adding that there is some mild profanity, equivalent to that found in most PG-13 movies.
While the BUHS production has “toned down” the revealing costumes and suggestive choreography seen in professional, adult casts of this show, it remains true to the styles of both, Davis says.
“In other words, the choreographer has incorporated Fosse-style dancing, because it is integral to the artistic intent of Chicago's creators, while the costumer has modeled the style of costumes around those seen in professional stage and screen productions,” he says.
The 1996 Broadway revival has won six Tony Awards (including Best Revival of a Musical), six Drama Desk Awards (including Outstanding Revival of a Musical) and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album (1998).
The revival holds the record for the longest-running musical revival on Broadway and is now the fourth longest-running-show with 6,304 performances as of January. The Academy Award-winning film version won an Oscar for Best Picture of the Year in 2002.
The book by Fred Ebb and Fosse is realized with lyrics by Ebb and music by John Kander. Musical numbers include “All That Jazz”, “Cell Block Tango”, “When You're Good To Mama”, “A Little Bit Of Good”, “My Own Best Friend”, “Mister Cellophane” and “Razzle Dazzle.”
The BUHS production
The BUHS production features several familiar student faces including Charlotte Maxwell (Velma Kelly), Aria Roach (Roxie Hart), Bridie Carmichael (Matron Mama Morton), Amanda Rink (Mary Sunshine), Lizzie Benton (Master of Ceremonies) and 2005 BUHS alumnus Nick Bombicino as Billy Flynn.
Additional players include Bronwyn Hodgkinson, Caitlin McCloskey-Meyer, Annie Caltrider, Casey Greenleaf, Victoria Jaenson, Zoe Perra (dancers); Cody Gauthier, Peter Green, Alec Silver, Ian Epstein, Rachel Durante, Matt Carroll, Maia Gilmour, Corinne Epstein, Saskia Bailey deBruijn, Alexandra Brodeur, Solene Chatelet, Beth Freeman, Sonya Marx, Kristina Meima, Molly Rice, Olivia Siegel, and Maia Struthers-Friedman.
The pit orchestra is comprised of BUHS student musicians and several area musicians: Ursula Casey, Ethan Manning, Tom Nasiatka, and Bill Schontz (reeds), Benson May and John Sawyer-Shaw (trumpet), Spencer Olson and Bob Thies (trombone), Matt Martyn (bass and tuba), Michelle Liechti (violin), Sam Gartenstein and Patty Meyer (piano), and Dominic Italia (drums).
The show, directed by Robert Kramsky (stage director), Stephen Rice (music co-director), Anthony Speranza (music co-director) and Davis (producer), marks Rice's 24th year with the BUHS musical as well as Speranza's 18th affiliation with BUHS.
This show marks Kramsky and Davis' 36th year of collaboration on BUHS musicals.
The production staff also includes Mary Linney (12th year as costumer), Willow Coronella (stage manager), Melanie Zinn (8th year as choreographer) and Seth Richardson (17th year doing sound).
“All told, over 150 years of combined experience is uniting to bring this production to the BUHS stage,” Davis says.