The touring company of Chicago that played the Music Hall at Fair Park in Dallas February 24-29, 2004 did not measure up to the 1999 touring production. It wasn't bad; it just didn't have the sparkle or electricity of the previous mounting. With a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago is a blockbuster musical with all the razz-ma-tazz of the flapper era -- at least it is when it delivers -- this show didn't.
The story revolves around showgirl, Roxie Hart (Bianca Marroquin) who put a well-placed bullet through her lover. Amos Hart (Ray Bokhour), her long-suffering shnook of a husband, decides to take the blame. Roxie ultimately lands in prison under the watchful eye of the prison matron, Mama Morton (Carol Woods), who will help her girls in the cellblock make the right connections on the outside -- for a fee, or course. Roxie is the newest prison sensation, upstaging another murderous chorine, Velma Kelly (Reva Rice) and provoking some amusing incidents of jealousy and one upsmanship.
Roxie hooks up with the flamboyant defense lawyer, Billy Flynn (Tom Wopat), whose interest and concern for his client is steadfast -- at least until the arrival of the next headline-grabbing murderess.
Wopat is a stellar Flynn who knows how to deliver a song. Kander and Ebb's tunes and Bob Fosse's choreography are reason enough to see this show, with such songs as the show opening "All That Jazz" and the catchy "Razzle Dazzle."
