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"And now, Miss Velma Kelly, in an act of desperation ... " Decadence, debauchery and jazz may have had to face more than their share of nature's retribution in the past two weeks, but made a triumphant return in Tuesday's performance of "Chicago" at the Bass Concert Hall, which showed that sometimes the retribution of man is just as indiscriminate as the retribution of nature.
The audience is greeted with a giant golden picture frame instead of the traditional theater curtain, within which the entire musical was set.
"Chicago" is the famous tale of how two murderesses begged, borrowed and lied their ways out of the noose and into vaudeville in the 1920s.
The musical debuted in 1975, based on the play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins in 1926. The musical features choreography by Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.
The show was revived in 1996, with new choreography by Ann Reinking, Fosse's ex-girlfriend, and a Tony-winning performance by Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly.
The musical's popularity was solidified by the critical and commercial success of the 2002 movie with Oscar-winning performances by Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah.
Tuesday's show was the first show of the new tour, as the previous shows in Pittsburgh were cancelled due to a union strike at the theater there. The show features the return of Tom Wopat as Billy Flynn and Carol Woods as Matron "Mama" Morton. Both have played their roles on Broadway, and Woods actually played Morton in the 1996 revival.
Wopat in particular has generated a lot of buzz for his performance. Tuesday, however, he seemed to come across a bit more like Wayne Newton performing in Las Vegas than like a vaudevillian. "All He Cares About Is Love" even featured chorus girls with pink flamingo wings.
Later, during "We Both Reached for the Gun," Wopat actually seemed to take on the vocal characteristics of Kermit the Frog, which stood in stark contrast with Gere's nasal performance in the film.
And to ensure that no one expects a simple rehash of the movie, it's important to point out that Brenda Braxton's Velma Kelly and Michelle DeJean's Roxie Hart exude a quiet vulnerability not to be found anywhere in the Oscar-winning film.
Roxie, in this representation, was not the bundle of wispy cuteness that Renee Zellwegger created on-screen. Putting a powerful voice on display, she created a temptress who made no secret of her lack of shame, except in "Roxie," where she left the audience believing that she really could be in love with her lovable loser husband Amos, in spite of her infidelity.
DeJean, with her wild mane of titian hair lumped atop her head, seemed almost to channel Lucille Ball at certain points. In one particularly despairing scene with Amos, her mouth hung open and one would almost have expected the words "Ohhhh Ricky" to fall out.
Braxton, with her cheshire-cat smile, turned the confident Velma into a cloyingly desperate sex kitten, still naive despite her worldliness.
Neither DeJean nor Braxton missed a note, and the scenes where they shared the stage were joyful to watch.
The movie never once slackened on the humor. Where Amos's "Cellophane Man" came across as maudlin in the film, here it was played to humorous effect. In fact, every appearance Amos made the audience break into laughter.
The real scene-stealer in the show, however, was unquestionably Mary Sunshine. The theatrical production has a twist on the character that will be a shock to those familiar only with the movie, but the twist was carried off perfectly.
In fact, the whole trial scene was extremely impressive. Unlike the tap-dancing scene in the movie, Tuesday's production had created a scene that paralleled the puppet press-conference, with human mimes, only on a larger scale.
However, the production is by no means perfect.
One notable fault in the production was the accompanying music. The band seemed to rush through certain musical numbers, and the trombones were weak in others. Throughout the night, the balance between the instruments never quite seemed to be right.
That said, the musicians managed sheer magnificence during "Roxie," starting softly and crescendo-ing into a raucous build-up.
Also, any scene featuring the six merry murderesses in the chorus seemed to have at least one singer off-key.
As for staging, there's hardly any room for complaint, as "Chicago" was practically designed to be a travelling show, with its minimalist sets all dressed in black.
All the costumes were in black too, creating visual unity. However, there is such a thing as too much unity. It's pretty distracting to see an assistant district attorney dressed like Mr. Slave from South Park and press people looking like common whores.
On balance the night was more than well-spent. Anyone who has a chance should catch it as soon as possible, as weekend performances may be cancelled if gale-force winds courtesy of Hurricane Rita reach Austin.
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