50 Favourite Musicals: 6: CHICAGO (1975) (John Kander / Fred Ebb)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life.

First performed: 1975, 46th Street Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1997, Adelphi Theatre, London

Productions seen: one

Score: John Kander / Fred Ebb

Book: Fred Ebb / Bob Fosse

Plot: Showgirl Roxie Hart shoots her lover when he says it's over and when her husband Amos refuses to back up her alibi, she is charged with murder.  In prison awaiting trial, Roxie realizes she is just one of the "merry murderesses" and, needing to get the public on her side, hires hot-shot - and corrupt - lawyer Billy Flynn who manipulates the press to say she's innocent.  However Billy's other killer client Velma Kelly wants some fame and press headlines too...

Five memorable numbers: ALL THAT JAZZ, NOWADAYS, THE CELL BLOCK TANGO, WHEN VELMA TAKES THE STAND, CLASS

Back-to-back Kander & Ebb musicals but why does CHICAGO rate higher than CABARET?  The 2002 film?  Hell no, it left me very under-whelmed.  The record-breaking revivals in the West End and Broadway?  Not particularly, with it's grating stunt-casting of washed-up pop singers and tv personalities...  No, CHICAGO is #6 on my list for Kander and Ebb's magnificent score, it's songs ripping through the show like Roxie's deadly bullets, as well as the hard-boiled book by Ebb and Bob Fosse.  CHICAGO was Gwen Verdon's baby; in the 1960s she saw the musical potential in the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a Chicago Tribune reporter who based her two lead roles on two actual acquitted murderesses, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner. CHICAGO had already been turned into two films: a 1927 silent and William Wellman's 1942 ROXIE HART.  The latter is utterly fabulous - hard-boiled, funny, and cynical until the tacked-on happy ending - with fantastic performances from Ginger Rogers as Roxie and Adolphe Menjou as Billy Flynn.  Verdon's problem was that Watkins had become a born-again Christian and refused to issue the rights as she felt her work glorified sin!  But her death in 1969 gave Gwen her chance and she naturally turned to ex-husband and collaborator Bob Fosse to direct the Broadway premiere.  CABARET composers John Kander and Fred Ebb were chosen for the score which was a risk as they were currently on a one-in one-out run: since CABARET their shows were THE HAPPY TIME (flop), ZORBA! (hit) and 70 GIRLS 70 (flop).

The 1920s suggested to Fosse giving the show a vaudeville theme, with the songs presented as out-front numbers and choreographed some of his most iconic numbers.  Although estranged, Fosse and Verdon worked closely together during the rehearsal period although he became more and more demanding, seemingly trying to undermine her, no doubt due to her controlling stake in the production.  Inspired casting matched Verdon's daffy Roxie with the hard-edged sass of Chita Rivera's Velma and they were both matched against the abrasive Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn.  The original 1975 Broadway production faced obstacles: a so-so reception from the critics undermined the box-office and with business touch-and-go, Gwen Verdon had to pull out for a nodes operation when her voice failed her - it turned out she swallowed a feather during the show's finale. While she recuperated, Fosse hit on the idea of replacing her with Liza Minnelli in her first stage work since winning the Oscar for CABARET.  She stayed with the show for over a month and the box office took off, although the situation grated on Verdon.  She returned to the role and the show ended it's run after two years.  In 1979 it opened at London's Cambridge Theatre with Jenny Logan, Antonia Ellis and Ben Cross which had a shorter run.  No Tony Awards despite 11 nominations and no SWET Awards despite 3 nominations left the impression that CHICAGO was a failed show.

In early 1990 I was given a tape of the original Broadway cast and became obsessed with the glorious score and vocal performances of Verdon, Rivera, Orbach and Barney Martin as hapless Amos Hart; I remember one night playing it over and over again until the songs were memorized, and could not understand how the show was not revived.  In December of that year, I got a further taste of it's greatness at an AIDS Benefit concert performance with the reuniting of Kander & Ebb's THE RINK stars Diane Langton as Roxie and Josephine Blake as Velma with Dave Willetts as Billy Flynn and Teddy Kempner as Amos Hart.  But it was in 1996 that CHICAGO's time arrived.  It was selected for the NY Encores! series of semi-staged versions of under-appreciated musicals.  In the post-OJ Simpson America, CHICAGO was seen to be horribly prescient in it's portrayal of corrupt justice and showbiz and was an instant success.  Producers Fran and Barry Weisler mounted a slightly revised version of Walter Bobbie's Encores! production, keeping the minimalist design which was mirrored in the stripped-down advertising design of black & white photographs with black & red text.  The revival starred Fosse muse Ann Reinking as Roxie (who also choreographed the show in Fosse's style), Bebe Neuwirth as Velma, Joel Grey as Amos Hart and James Naughton as Billy Flynn.  Winning 6 Tony Awards, the show is still running on Broadway where it is now the longest-ever running American musical on Broadway.  I saw this revival in 1997 when it opened at the Adelphi and loved it; Ruthie Henshall as Roxie, Ute Lemper (inspired casting) as Velma, Henry Goodman as Billy Flynn and Nigel Planer as Amos set the show running in London, eventually closing nearly 15 years later.  A further 21st Anniversary London production hung around longer than expected.  I saw it a few times but tired of the Weissler shtick of casting under-performing pop stars and tv celebrities in certain roles however it did mean I got to see the delicious Susannah Fellows as Mama Morton, a nice touch as her father Don Fellows had played Amos in the 1979 London production.  The stunt-castings of the revival did nothing to stop my love of the show which continues thanks to both the Broadway original and revival cast recordings - both of which capture the score's genius to perfection. 

I cannot decide between these so you are getting them both: The glorious original pairing of Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera ripping up the HOT HONEY RAG on the Mike Wallace tv show in 1975...



...and the 1997 Tony Awards broadcast with Bebe Neuwirth singing ALL THAT JAZZ and joined by Ann Reinking for the HOT HONEY RAG.  It's interesting to see where the choreography was tweaked for the revival.

50 Favourite Musicals: 17: THE RINK (1984) (John Kander / Fred Ebb)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1984, Martin Beck Theatre, NY

First seen by me: 1987, Forum,Wythenshawe

Productions seen: three

Score: John Kander / Fred Ebb
Book: Terrence McNally

Plot:  Anna Antonelli has finally sold the Coney Island roller rink that she used to run with her volatile Italian-American husband, wanting rid of all the unhappy memories it holds.  But just as the wrecking crew arrive to start demolishing the rink, Anna's estranged daughter Angel appears after fifteen years on the road, wanting to come back to the only home she knows... let battle commence!

Five memorable numbers: COLOURED LIGHTS, CHIEF COOK AND BOTTLE WASHER, THE APPLE DOESN'T FALL, WALLFLOWER,  AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

In 1984, THE RINK opened on Broadway with the double-threat casting of Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli as the estranged mother and daughter Anna and Angel.  Despite them and a score that is pure Kander & Ebb, the reviews were iffy and it lasted six months with Minnelli leaving before the end to check into rehab, her replacement was none other than Stockard Channing.  Kander and Ebb had originally wanted it to be a smaller show: Off-Broadway with a different book and director.  But when their good friend Liza expressed an interest, the investment money poured in, a new director was brought on board and Terence McNally was drafted in to re-write the book.  Despite it all, THE RINK won Chita Rivera both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress in A Musical.

In 1987 I went up to Manchester to see the UK Premiere at Paul Kerryson's northern musical powerhouse The Forum Theatre in Wythenshawe starring the wonderful pairing of Josephine Blake and Diane Langton.  They had whetted my appetite by singing songs from THE RINK in the Kander & Ebb tribute show HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET! in 1985 so I could not let that opportunity pass - little did I know they were to transfer to London's Cambridge Theatre the following year.  But, as I got in to see them in their shared dressing-room after, I'm glad I made the effort.  Sadly history repeated itself when, despite their explosive performances and the energetic performances by the male chorus of six, the show received so-so reviews and it closed after only a month despite the goodwill of all who saw it and a rallying campaign by Jo Blake who suspected double-dealing from the show's management.  It was all very sad but the London cast recording captures some of their unique performances.  A while after it closed, there was a concert version staged at Her Majesty's with Blake again but with Langton's understudy Caroline O'Connor playing Angel - and last year O'Connor starred in the Southwark Playhouse revival playing Anna with Gemma Sutton as Angel.  It was great to see again but it proved that if you are going to stage it, you really need two larger-than-life performers whose voices still are travelling when they smack the back wall.  Where are the likes of them these days?

Luckily THE RINK got a slot on the Olivier Awards show before it opened so sit back and experience the take-no-prisoners belting vocals of Josephine Blake and Diane Langton with Michael Gyngell, Richard Bodkin, Peter Edbrook, James Gavin, Gareth Snook and Steve Hervieu as the Wreckers - Go Girls!

50 Favourite Musicals: 22: HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET (1985) (John Kander / Fred Ebb)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1985, Donmar Warehouse, London

First seen by me: as above

Productions seen: one

Score: John Kander / Fred Ebb
Plot:  Four West End stars deliver a song-by-song tribute to the dazzling songbook of John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Five memorable numbers: MAYBE THIS TIME, A QUIET THING, ARTHUR IN THE AFTERNOON, THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER; CITY LIGHTS

Before the Donmar was taken over by Sam Mendes in 1992 to become a proper producing theatre and quickly established itself as one of THE important theatres in London, it had been run as a fringe space with an ever-changing array of shows such as stand-up, Edinburgh Festival transfers and an important performance space for cabaret singers who were bereft of small spaces to accommodate them "off-West End".  In 1985, the musicals star David Kernan started a season of shows called SHOW PEOPLE that consisted of evening performances and late night shows at the weekend.  The inaugural show was KERN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, a tribute to Jerome Kern based on the old SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM format of songs linked loosely by biographical information - indeed Kernan revived SIDE BY SIDE itself the following year.  But one of the first late-night and weekend shows was Ian Judge's wonderful HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET - a tribute to the dazzling back catalogue of John Kander and Freb Ebb.  It's stellar cast included veteran West End star Josephine Blake - recently returned to the London stage from semi-retirement, the current stars Angela Richards and the unstoppable Diane Langton, and the lone male performer was Martin Smith, a late replacement after Ray Evans pulled out.  Judge dropped the linking device and let the songs speak for themselves, drawn from the Kander & Ebb shows FLORA THE RED MENACE, CABARET, THE HAPPY TIME, 70 GIRLS 70, CHICAGO, THE ACT, WOMAN OF THE YEAR and their latest show THE RINK; the show also included songs from their film and tv work such as LIZA WITH A Z, FUNNY LADY and LOVE FROM A TO Z.  All of them turned in fantastic performances and a few have now - for me - become definitive.  Diane Langton was always one of my favourite West End belters and here she excelled: her "Maybe This Time" will never be bettered - as she sang the final "Maybe This Time / I'll Win", she soared up the notes on "...Iaaaaaaaaaaaaall Win" all on a single sensational breath; equally her version of "A Quiet Thing" was wonderfully sung, going large in the middle section before bringing it back down to almost a whisper, and "Arthur In The Afternoon" gave her ample opportunity to connect to her audience as only she could.  Jo Blake found a natural home in the gimlet-eyed cynicism of Kander & Ebb's songbook and turned in memorable performances of "City Lights" and in "The Grass Is Always Greener" duet with Angela Richards who herself turned in a magnetic performance of "I In My Chair", almost a one-act play of marital betrayal.  Martin Smith's easy charm resulted in sweet performances of "Mr Cellophane" and "Sometimes A Day Goes By" - what a loss it was when he died in 1994 from an AIDS-related illness.

Sadly no video exists of HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET but a number of it's songs feature in ths glorious celebration of Kander and Ebb musicals from the 1984 Tony Awards, the year before this show.  Sit back and let Liza, Chita, Gwen and Raquel (!) have a Diva-off...

50 Favourite Musicals: 40: SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM (1976) (Stephen Sondheim / various)

The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and, as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast recording of my life:

First performed: 1976, Mermaid Theatre

First seen by me: 1986, Donmar Warehouse

Productions seen: Two

Score: Stephen Sondheim / various 
Book: Ned Sherrin

Plot:  Three singers and a narrator explore the songwriting genius of Stephen Sondheim, spanning his first 19 years of writing for stage and screen.

Five memorable numbers: LOSING MY MIND, I'M STILL HERE, CAN THAT BOY FOXTROT, BROADWAY BABY, I REMEMBER

David Kernan was appearing in Stephen Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC at the Adelphi in 1975 when he was asked by Cleo Laine and John Dankworth to arrange a trio of fundraisers for their theatre in Berkshire.  He decided on a tribute to Sondheim, asked Millicent Martin and Julia McKenzie to join him and Ned Sherrin to do links between the songs.  Cameron Mackintosh, recently started out as a producer, saw it and produced it the following year at the Mermaid Theatre, which had previously been the home for two similar songwriter tributes COWARDY CUSTARD and COLE - both of which Julia McKenzie had appeared in.  The show was such a success that it quickly transferred to the Wyndhams where it ran for over a year before transferring to the Garrick for another year.  In 1977 the show - in true coals to Newcastle style - opened on Broadway where it was nominated for Best Musical as well as the whole cast being nominated too.  The show is credited with gaining Sondheim a bigger audience in the UK - of the ten musicals primarily featured, only half had been produced previously in the West End.  After falling in love with Julia McKenzie in GUYS AND DOLLS in 1982, I quickly sought out the cast recording which blew me away; 40+ years later, so many of McKenzie, Martin and Kernan's performances are still nigh-on definitive.  I finally had a chance to see it when Kernan staged a tenth anniversary production as part of his Show People series of shows at the Donmar, with the wonderful pairing of female powerhouses Diane Langton and Angela Richards with the men represented by Tim Flavin and Kernan (now the narrator).  Subsequent productions has attempted to drop in numbers from the post-1976 years and it is still a popular production to stage both here and abroad.  I suspect this is primarily because the piece attempts - to quote Ned Sherrin - "to explore three propositions, Sondheim is the best lyric writer of our time; the most adventurous composer of musicals; and the most considerable musical dramatist."  They succeeded.

Here is Millicent Martin on the 1977 Tony Awards giving her nuanced but steely version of 'I'm Still Here' from FOLLIES, as I said, near-definitive.

THE RINK at Southwark Playhouse - rolling back the years...

 When I heard that Southwark Playhouse were going to stage Kander & Ebb's musical THE RINK I was excited tempered with worry... always the way when a favourite show is being revived.

In 1984, THE RINK premiered on Broadway with the killer-diller casting of Chita Rivera and Liza Minnelli as estranged mother and daughter Anna and Angel Antonelli, fighting over the imminent demolition of their former home, a roller-skating rink on a now-derelict boardwalk.  Anna is glad to finally be rid of the place as it is filled with memories of her unhappy married life and later struggles as a lone parent, while for Angel it's the only home she has ever known after years of unfulfilled searching in California.  When she discovers Anna forged her signature on the sale contract, Angel declares war...

Despite the star headliners and a score that is classic Kander & Ebb, the critics were unimpressed and it lasted six months with Liza leaving before the end to check into rehab, Stockard Channing replacing her for the last few weeks.  In retrospect, maybe that was the way it should have been all along: Kander and Ebb had wanted it originally as an off-Broadway show with a different book and director, their friend Liza expressed an interest and the investment money poured in, a new director was brought on board and Terence McNally was asked to write a new book.  Although judged a failure it did however win Chita Rivera both the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actress in A Musical.

Jump forward three years and I am on a train up to Manchester to see the British Premiere at Paul Kerryson's northern musical powerhouse The Forum Theatre in Wythenshawe starring the equally magnificent musical talents of Josephine Blake and Diane Langton.  They had whetted my appetite by singing some of the songs in the Kander & Ebb tribute show HOW LUCKY CAN YOU GET! that I couldn't let the opportunity pass.... little did I know they were to transfer to London's Cambridge Theatre.  But, as I got in to see them in their shared dressing-room after, I'm glad I did!

But history repeated itself: despite their explosive performances and the energetic performances by the male chorus of six, the show received cool reviews from the critics and the show closed after a month despite the goodwill of all who saw it and a rallying campaign by Jo Blake who told me she suspected double-dealing from the show's management.  It was all very sad but their dynamic production lives on with the cast recording which captures some of their two unique performances.

But to the Southwark playhouse and a new audience... and a new text!  There were a few new lines, an altered finale and the biggest surprise was that the show's opening solo for Angel COLOURED LIGHTS now closes the first act rather than a short reprise; I am not totally sure it worked.  The show now starts with the book rather with one of Kander & Ebb's signature solo numbers to whisk you into the score straightaway.

Director Adam Lenson's production however moved along like the demolition men on their roller-skates - maybe a bit too briskly at times as several of the numbers were cut-off before the end of the song which frustrated the audience - alright, me - in giving the performers their due.

The pairing of Caroline O'Connor and Gemma Sutton worked well, although both oddly seemed to have dodgy moments with demanding numbers in the second act - Anna's MRS A and Angel's ALL THE CHILDREN IN A ROW - and in the first section of the play O'Connor sometimes over-sold her line-readings - she seemed to be channelling Popeye - but she calmed down as the show went on. No such worries with Gemma Sutton whose Angel was nicely poker-faced and combative.

The six supporting actors who play the demolition men also portray all the men - and sometimes women - in Anna and Angel's flashbacks and I particularly liked Ross Dawes for his spectacular spins in the title number and Ben Redfern's Lenny, quietly loving Anna from afar.  The way the auditorium has been configured for this production has cut down on the space for the chaps to do their skating in the title number but Fabian Aloise's choreography managed to still make an impact.

THE RINK is running until June 23rd and if you have never seen it before I urge you to get down to Southwark Playhouse and experience John Kander and Fred Ebb's wonderful Broadway score. My memories of Jo and Di are still intact but it was great to experience it all over again... and congratulate myself on my taste in musicals!