By BRUCE DENNILL
Chicago / Resident director: Darren Greeff / Teatro, Montecasino, Fourways
Now in its fourth South African iteration, Chicago has not faded in any of the aspects that make it a high-impact stage musical – Fred Ebb and John Kander’s music; Bob Fosse’s choreography (or the variations of it); the clever, compact staging (with the live band placed centrally on a number of stepped levels); the sexy, provocative costumes of the lean, muscled dancers; or the sad reflection on society in general and the celebrity-focused, clickbait-obsessed aspect of American popular culture in particular.
There’s nothing much to like about any of the characters bar Amos Hart (given heart and authenticity by Dean De Klerk), the sweet, naïve husband of spotlight-seeking murderess Roxie Hart (Kiruna-Lind Devar), and yet, it’s near impossible to take your eyes off the unfolding drama – which is a knowing indictment of the audience, showing them to be as hungry as the characters for the gossip and manipulation that drive the story.
That story involves, in a society in which promiscuity, adultery and the resulting, sometimes lethal, fall-out are positioned as more or less normal behaviour, a number of women who, incarcerated and with the threat of worse to come, seek to raise their profile by generating the most outlandish stories possible and so keep the attention of the gaggle of reporters who are always seeking a dramatic headline.
The chief protagonists here are Velma Kelly (Samantha Peo, reprising a role she has, along with Amra-Faye Wright, helped to define for South African audiences), who has been in prison for a while, and Roxie Hart, a nervy newcomer to the jail who quickly grows in confidence and guile once she learns how to work the system to her advantage. Peo has also played Roxie – to great acclaim – previously, so there could scarcely be a better space for Devar to launch her own Chicago journey, which she does with all the brassiness the role requires and all the triple-threat technical expertise she has displayed in a lengthening list of notable musical theatre roles (Mamma Mia!, Phantom of the Opera, Evita and more). Peo is profoundly at home here, moving beautifully and making Velma simultaneously tough, vulnerable and dryly funny – one specific cackle during I Can’t Do It Alone is particularly memorable.
Another returning alumnus, Jonathan Roxmouth, is equally compelling, both charming and sleazy as ego-driven, scheming lawyer Billy Flynn. Roxmouth’s movement and comic timing is tight and controlled, giving Flynn an air of authority you don’t want such a shady character to have, and also highlighting the gap between Flynn’s plan for the situation and his anger at seeing his preferred outcome potentially slip away when he is temporarily outmanoeuvred.
The ensemble cast is a finely tuned there always being something to look or laugh at, or to appreciate for precision or drama in choreography or for melody in the music.
The impossibly chiselled Ferdinand W Gernandt (another alumnus) provides a sublime, uproarious cameo as Roxie’s lover Fred Casely in her courtroom scene; the famous Cell Block Tango is given a performance worthy of its superb combination of darkly funny lyrics and striking hooks; the pas de trois choreography led by Devar as she sings Me And My Baby; and Class, the duet between Peo and Tankiso Mamabolo as prison matron ‘Mama’ Morton packs a vocal punch.
Musical director Kevin Kraak keeps a top-notch band (drummer Luca De Bellis makes some complex rhythms look ridiculously easy and some of the vibrato-drenched horn solos are absolutely filthy) at tempos that maintain fiery energy below and around his conductor’s dias, while also being amusingly brought into the narrative when addressed directly by the characters.
Chicago 2025 confirms that South Africa has – still and again – a group of performers capable of creating a world-class production of a show that is unlikely to dip in popularity as long as there are fans of good music and racy dancing, or indeed, and less happily, as long as its darker themes remain in the cultural spotlight.