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'Chicago' in Saratoga

A glitzy new production announces big ambitions for South Bay Musical Theatre

by Steve Palopoli on May 28, 2009
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For its 2009 season, Saratoga Drama Group decided to make a play for the big time. Changing the group's name to South Bay Musical Theatre, its members took a chance on the notion that if they had the moxie to grab audiences' attention in a bold new way, it would pay off in fame and financial success. Their plan is not all that different from the plot of Chicago, if you really think about it.

Unlike the musical's cutthroat leads, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, SBMT didn't cheat, lie or back-stab to get where they are, and as far as we know there aren't any bodies buried behind the Saratoga Civic Theatre. Still, the Bob Fosse–designed musical is a smart pick for the group's next-level debut. Sophisticated, sexy and cynical, Chicago's Prohibition-bondage chic setting belies the fact that its satire is directed not at the amoral criminals in its cast of characters but at the modern audiences that go to see it.

Who fulfills the corrupt dreams of the Roxies and Velmas of the world? the musical asks. We do, of course. It's not merely for convenience's sake that the fourth wall is broken down when the pair's fictional stage act is performed. It's essential to the thematic concerns underlying Chicago, and South Bay Musical Theatre brings these out in a sublime production that goes all out to entertain while it nails the musical's clever indictment of celebrity crime. The message is even more relevant now than when it debuted in 1975, or when the true-crime play it was based on was published in 1926.

Following in Fosse's footsteps, the choreography by Andrea Heaberlin is brilliant. One of the keys to making this deceptively simple musical work is arranging the multitasking scenes, which sometimes shift focus several times within a single musical number. There's a danger of losing the audience's attention, or robbing the main characters of important moments in the spotlight, but SBMT's staging makes it look easy. The impeccable execution of the ventriloquist routine that features in "We Both Reach for the Gun" would have impressed Fosse himself.

Nor could a successful production of Chicago come off without musical talent that befits classic songs like "All That Jazz," "Cell Block Tango" and "Razzle Dazzle." The orchestra led by Dan Singletary is nothing short of superb. The acting varies, but overall it delivers. The leads play to their strengths. Longtime Saratoga Drama Group fixture Karen DeHart plays a great, seriously complicated Roxie, even if her voice isn't always powerful enough to match her co-stars. Rebecca Lipon, meanwhile, has an incredible voice and dancing talent to match, but she can't quite bring the complexity of Velma out in the same way. Together, they're a great pair, and Tim Reynolds delivers the coup de grâce in an all-around performance as the slimy lawyer Billy Flynn. If this is what it has in mind for its new life as a regional theatre company, SBMT is on the right track. Chicago is a blast.

Chicago, a South Bay Musical Theatre production, plays Thursday (June 4) at 8pm, Friday–Saturday (at 8pm) and Sunday (May 31) at 2:30pm through June 6 at Saratoga Civic Theater, 13777 Fruitvale Ave., Saratoga. Tickets are $20–$27. (408.266.4SDG)



by Steve Palopoli on May 28, 2009
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