It's hard to tell which aspect of Chicago makes us feel more nostalgic, the look of Bob Fosse's rhythmic, pelvic choreography; the ricky-ticky jazziness of its archetypal Kander and Ebb score; or simply the fact that in 1975, when Chicago first hit Broadway, America wasn't yet ready to believe that a cold-blooded murderer with a good lawyer could get away with everything. Now Chicago's cynicism feels almost quaint. We don't need to be told the media attacks every scandal in a feeding frenzy and then drops the carcass when another meal appears. Chicago's value as entertainment now comes chiefly from the way fine dancers and larger-than-life theater personalities can mix outrageous camp and deadpan seriousness, not to mention the way Kander and Ebb's score holds together as a unified -- and awesomely zippy -- song cycle.
Ruthie Henshall (unreviewed) now plays Roxie Hart, the remorseless murderess who not only expects to escape the noose but hopes to launch a vaudeville career from the notoriety. Charlotte D'Amboise is the new Velma.
Much has been made of Chicago's too-spare set (the show was originally revived as a concert staging and hasn't exactly been glitzed up for its Broadway run), and truth to tell, a little more color wouldn't hurt. But with limber chorus dancers and eye-candy chorines, who needs more than a ramp, a ladder and a bandstand?
