Musical 'Chicago' Razzle-Dazzles Audiences

The musical Chicago provides a lot of razzle-dazzle, and Porthouse Theatre’s recent production, directed by Terri Kent, conveyed that beautifully.

I attended the penultimate show July 1 when the temperature outside was a humid 93 degrees, and the actors on stage were even hotter.

Chicago is the story of two women living in Jazz Age Chicago who vie for notoriety and infamy after murdering their respective lovers. Both see the press coverage as a prime opportunity to further careers in the entertainment industry. The only problem is that the press is fickle, and the challenge for Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly is to keep the media’s attention long enough to be acquitted.

Subtext here is how easily the media is manipulated and by extension how people will believe anything they’re told.

I’ve seen mediocre shows at Porthouse, which is affiliated with Kent State University’s theater program, and I’ve seen great performances at Porthouse.

Chicago feels somewhere in between. Some of the truly great aspects of the show were the innovative and minimalist set design as well as the costume design (except for one pair of pants worn by a member of the ensemble that were a bit, well, distracting).

Notable performances were by Eric Van Baars, who really seemed to relish the role of Billy Flynn, the smarmy lawyer who makes an art out of razzle- dazzling the media; the sultry Sandra Emerick, who seemed made to play the part of Vaudevillian turned murderess Velma Kelly; and Stow resident Timothy Culver as Amos Hart, who was perfectly cast as Roxie’s gullible husband. His performance of “Mister Cellophane” was both entertaining as well as heart-wrenching.

Also of note was Dylan Ratell, cast in the part of Mary Sunshine. Ratell, a male musical theater major at Central Michigan University, plays the female effervescent newspaper columnist who believes that no one can be completely devoid of good. His vocal range is nothing short of amazing.

Finally, the ensemble, including graduate Jason Leupold, provided a solid foundation for such a high-energy show.

A distraction, unfortunately, was the heat. The fans in the pavillion provided plenty of air circulation but were shut off when the show began. At intermission, I overheard a man ask an employee if the fans could be turned on again and was told that Kent had ordered them off because they interfered with the sound system. That’s an issue that desperately needs to be corrected in the future, considering the outdoor summer venue.

The good news is that most of the heat was generated by a very commendable show that offered sex, murder, adultery, and, of course ... all that jazz!