And all that jazz! Senior students dazzle with Chicago performance

Acting Deputy Head (Co-Curricular) and Director of Drama Helen Brown reflects on an incredible three days of performances.

Murder was transformed into showbusiness in the Barnes Theatre this week, as the senior students took to the stage in their production of Kander and Ebb’s bitingly satirical musical. The audience were drawn into the seedy world of 1920’s Chicago, where guilt matters less than glitter and murder is the most popular form of entertainment.  

Roxie Hart, played with wry humour by Georgina C (G, UVI), is a wannabe vaudeville artist who murders her lover (Hugh M (Ch, UVI), channelling his inner silverback gorilla). She finds herself in the Cook County Gaol, surely the most glamorous penitentiary in Chicago, presided over by the fabulous Mama Morton, Thea H (MSH, UVI). There she meets Velma Kelly, played by Kate W (M, LVI), the gaol’s most famous inmate and undisputed Queen Bee. The ensuing showdown between Roxie and Velma was one of the first act’s many highlights, with Georgina C and Kate W vying for supremacy.  

As Mama points out, in Chicago, the truth matters less than the headline, and all of the gaol’s residents have their own version of history, particularly the ‘six merry murderesses’, brilliantly played by Tabitha W (G, UVI), Hattie A (G, V) Annabel T (EDH, LVI), Lwsi R (M, LVI), Eva G (G, LVI) and Daisy S (G, V). 

Enter Billy Flynn - the excellent Laurie M, (Rb, LVI) - an avaricious lawyer who believes that the history of religion might have been very different if he had been on Christ’s defence team. For the sum of $5,000 dollars, he sets about convincing the press of Roxie’s innocence, in a brilliantly staged rendition of ‘The Press Conference Rag’ where the journalists became his puppets. Chief among Billy’s groupies is the eternally positive Mary Sunshine (Charlotte H (M, UVI), in superb voice) who tries to convince us that ‘there’s a little bit of good in everyone’ – a belief that proves largely unfounded.  

Among roster of the selfish and the cynical, only Roxie’s husband Amos can lay claim to any kind of moral integrity. Beautifully sung by Guy D (Rb, LVI), his iconic aria, ‘Mr Cellophane’ is a poignant reminder of how the good are ignored and the wicked can triumph. The show ends with a brilliant duet by Roxie and Velma, in which they celebrate their freedom and celebrity; a bitter reminder that happy endings do not always come to those who deserve them.  

The show is famous for its original choreography by Bob Fosse, and particular credit must go to Miss Archer, Head of Dance, for her brilliant reinterpretation, which both paid homage to the original and offered fresh new material. The production was able to showcase the burgeoning dance talent within the school, with Issy U (G, UVI, Poppy G (MSH, V), Mari A (EDH, LVI) and Alice L (MSH, V) standing out with their fierce and fabulous performances.