Theater director Jake Blakeman and choreographer Linda Quinn bring “Chicago” to NE Campus on April 22-25 at 7 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on the last day.
Fred Ebb, John Kander and Bob Fosse’s classic dark-comedy musical explores stories of lies and violence in the Roaring Twenties from the eyes of “Merry Murderess” Roxie Hart played by Leilani Venus Lee and Velma Kelly played by Caliana Graham.
“It’s a fun show in terms of the morality of it because almost every character here is a terrible person,” Graham said. “Those are so much fun to get to play because that’s just not how we act in real life.”
This show is an ensemble piece, requiring collaboration between the cast, band, tech and director. Along with the two leads, the importance of the ensemble was repeatedly mentioned.
“I think that all the ensemble pieces are great and grand, especially with the lighting and costumes,” Lee said.
Blakeman, a former TCC student turned director, leads this cast with Quinn choregraphing the musical while other members of the drama department offered their support and ideas.
The performance of Chicago breaks the traditional format of the show. It’s more traditionally set with musicians at a bandstand and actors who come out to dance in a large area, according to Blakeman.
“We’ve taken it into a more literal place of a prison. The band is still here, of course, but we’ve kind of made it more theatrical,” Blakeman said. “We’ve actually broken convention a little bit to kind of see how we can add on to the spectacle.”
Chicago was a wide-reaching effort, crossing departments, working with dance and music. It also attracted many crew and cast members from other campuses and even other colleges.
“I’ve been working through this program as a choreographer close to 15 years, and this is the largest group of students to audition I have seen in 15 years,” Quinn said.
Chicago has a number of songs which are more popular than the original musical such as “We Both Reached for the Gun.” NE Associate Professor of Drama Jakie Cabe emphasized the impact of Fosse’s work on pop culture as a reason why audiences should be excited to see the performance.
“Bob Fosse pops up in everything from commercials to, you know, music videos to pop music. It’s just all over,” Cabe said. “I think people are going to go, ‘Oh, wow, this is really, this is kind of not just this one show. This is everything.’”
