Chicago is a whirlwind of greed, treachery, corruption, violence, manipulation and exploitation. In this essay, I have chosen to discuss only three of the themes that lurk on the surface and in the depths of this unconventional musical. I think the themes of greed, violence and treachery are the most important to portray effectively during performance because the audience should be aware of those themes the most in order to understand the concept of the musical. This narrows down the scope of my essay enabling me to focus on those particular themes and the performance of them in great detail.
I am drawn to discuss the musical Chicago in this essay as I have an inevitable fascination with theatre and I believe that Chicago is one of those performances in which most audiences can enjoy. This is because it embodies a majority of issues in society from media shaping of minds to sexual suggestiveness. Chicago is an unconventional musical because it doesn’t slap crime it celebrates it and this intrigues audiences to enjoy it because they always like something new.
Dance is an enormous element in this musical because it derives the emotions and themes effectively throughout the entire musical. In the style of the infamous Bob Fosse, all the themes of the performance are drawn out to the audience. Bob Fosse can conjure up emotion like no other choreographer and one of his masterpieces is indefinitely Chicago as his signature dance form is obvious in the musical.
In the opening dance sequence of the song, All That Jazz, the character of Velma Kelly shows that she loves the spotlight by dancing in front of all the other dancers. Her greed for the spotlight is illustrated through her sexual and sensual movements because it suggests that she is trying to lure the audience into adoring her by making herself the only noticeable one. If she can’t get the whole audience to praise her then at least she will receive attention from all the males of the audience by enticing them with the sexual and curvy movements of her body. This was due to Bob Fosse’s signature style of dance as he is claimed to be the “father of sexual suggestiveness”. The narrator introduces the performance of All That Jazz with “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Kelly sisters…” but only Velma appears to be performing the song. This confuses the audience and provokes them into thinking that perhaps Velma stole the act, which in fact she did. Velma actually murdered her sister just before the performance of All That Jazz. The violence is clearly represented in the lyrics of the song when Velma sings “No, I’m no one’s wife but, Oh I love my life” because she does actually have a husband but murdered him right before singing the song. The fact that she still “love(s) her life” proves to the audience that Velma’s character is corrupt and immoral and that she cares only about herself. She sings that one line more angrily and violently than the rest of the lyrics by emphasising all the ‘L’ sounds and the word “wife”, which verifies all of the above indefinitely to the audience.
The scene in the jailhouse where the murderesses perform the song, Cell Block Tango they sing and visually portray the violence of each of the murders of their boyfriends/husbands. Bob Fosse uses the style of Tango dance in this scene, which I think depicts the violence and treachery very effectively because tango style dance consists of very dominant and powerful movements with a very fast tempo. There are a lot of angry movements in tango such as the stamping of the feet and jerking of the head from left to right. These suggestive movements blend with the lyrics of the song and as a result stun the audience about the audacity and violence that these murderesses are capable of. The lyrics to the song are ballads of the women’s despair and ill fortune and the chorus is like a justification for their murderous acts:
He had it coming
He only had himself to blame
If you’d had been there
If you’d had seen it
I betcha you would’ve done the same
Therefore the song is sung very angrily and the actors shout rather than sing to emphasis the rage that they feel. The actors also adapt their facial expressions to the mood of the song with facial casts of a betrayed victim and of absolute hatred and fury.
When Roxie’s character began to gain more and more fame and publicity, Velma’s jealousy rose to a point where desperation was the only answer. Velma tries to form a duo with Roxie when she sings I Can Do It Alone. Velma’s dancing in this song carried along an extreme fast tempo with lots of spinning and flick movements to emphasise her desperation of bringing her popularity up and her mind spinning because she knew she was beginning to ‘lose in the game of fame’. She was desperately trying to persuade Roxie to be on her side for her own benefits, which brings it all down to greed.
When the media probes many questions towards Roxie, the answering is left up to her lawyer, Billy Flynn. He speaks for Roxie because he is trying to gain sympathy for her from the public. The effect of this makes the audience realise how easily the media are manipulated and how slimy Flynn really is. The screen adaptation of the musical Chicago performs this scene very effectively. It is very much like a theatrical performance even though it is on screen, which is why I’m referring to it. Billy Flynn is a ventriloquist and puppeteers Roxie so that she says the things that Flynn is actually saying and the press are also puppets that Billy manipulates into believing him. This is all whilst the song We Both Reached for the Gun is being sung by Billy (through Roxie the puppet). This idea for performing this scene is very effectively in portraying the manipulative nature of lawyers to the media and the media to the public. Treachery is clearly involved as slimy Billy Flynn is lying to the media and the public. I think that this scene provokes the audience to ask themselves questions about whether they can really believe the media and perhaps awakens them into not believing everything they read or see on television because they can relate with the emotions conjured in the scene and feel somewhat betrayed as well. Issues such as these need to be taken seriously, but in Chicago it all seems to be about ‘who puts on the best show”. Which corresponds to Roxie’s final trial in court, where her acquittal is determined. It is illustrated like a show or a performance within the performance of Chicago. Billy Flynn sings about how all he has to do is “Razzle Dazzle” the court, which again is simply a show Flynn puts on to manipulate the people into believing that Roxie is innocent. The style in which this scene is performed is glamourous and appealing with many slow and classical movements and gestures in the dance motif. This heavily resembles society’s idea of Hollywood or Broadway glamour and ‘showbiz’, but this time there is a subtext in the context of it all and the audience recognises this subtext of the treachery and manipulation behind the façade of allurement. It is used to “dazzle” the on lookers, who are eventually tricked into believing Roxie’s innocence.
Effective communication towards an audience in a musical must incorporate the package of all the various techniques and the stage is one of them. Musicals often have huge extravagant sets that are usually formal. The many performances of Chicago have been done on the proscenium arch theatre with the advantage of realistic boxsets and the arrival of intricate effects. The disadvantage of this is that there is a separation of actors and audience, which means that it is sometimes difficult for the actors to project their performance and ideas from the stage to the auditorium. In my opinion, for the performance and the themes to be effectively projected to the audience, the stage should be more informal. For an example the proscenium stage should have a large thrust stage too that comes right out so that there is audience sitting on either side of it as well as in front. This way the audiences sitting in different places will all have a different perspective of the action on stage allowing the audience to have a more complex interpretation of what’s going on. The thrust stage should have many levels including one that comes almost level with the audience. This enables the audience to have an increased relation to themes depicted on stage. When the actors get right into the faces of the audience, the themes of violence can be very effectively projected. The set design on the stage on previous performances of Chicago has always been realistic and changes according to the scene.
The mood and atmosphere of the production is also part of the ‘communication package’. Lighting can indefinitely attain exactly this. Lighting is an important dramatic device in Chicago because it assists the themes’ portrayal especially during the dance motifs whilst songs are being sung. In the Cell Block Tango the lighting alternates from pale blue spotlights to blood red tints. The pale blue colour lighting paints a cold and corrupt image and spreads this atmosphere on to the audience. Have the pale blue lighting as spotlights on each of the murderess symbolises the isolation and loneliness that all the murderesses feel being in prison. The blood red colour lighting paints the violent and treacherous picture and represents the murders committed by the murderesses. The emphasis that the lighting displays projects the themes remarkably well.
In a slightly warmer scene such as the scene introducing Billy Flynn, the lighting is alternating amongst pale gold, light rose and apricot. The pale gold emphasises warmth portraying the comfort and ease Roxie feels as she hears about Billy ‘the amazing lawyer’. It’s similar to sunshine, which exhibits hope for Roxie and even the audience’s mood lightens up during this scene. Although Billy is a slimy lawyer, the audience can’t help but like him because he is the motive to the happy ending. The light rose element of the lighting exposes spritzes of 'lovey dovey' conditions as a line from the song being sung is “We love Billy…” The apricot tint in the lighting foreshadows Billy’s cheekiness and skilful tactics he contains as a lawyer. Even though the lighting creates such a serene and warm atmosphere for Flynn’s character, the audience later learns that they were being fooled as he doesn’t turn out to be such a “wonderful guy”, but more of a clever, deceptive lawyer. He betrays clients as easily as he does save them like the way he forgot completely about Velma as Roxie was starting to gain good publicity and fame.
Costuming also communicates clearly to an audience and the notorious sexy costumes of Chicago are very important to the themes of the musical.
See Appendix 1 for diagram and information on the Proscenium Arch Theatre.
See Appendix 2 for diagram of my proposed idea for the stage.
See Appendix 3 for diagrams of costume design in Chicago
