THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: January 03, 2003
Yeah, I know I'm only supposed to
review live theater. But this movie has a serious theater pedigree. And
besides, it's a knockout movie musical, and there hasn't been a
successful movie made of a stage musical since "Cabaret" in 1972.
Last year's "Moulin Rouge" revitalized the genre. And the new
"Chicago" is sustaining it -- in spades. Based on a 1926 play, the
musical was factual, in part -- the story of one Roxie Hart, a married chorine
who offed her two-timing lover in Prohibition Chicago. The 1975 Kander and Ebb
musical, co-written by legendary director-choreographer Bob Fosse, was a
Broadway hit, and so was its 1996 revival, which is still running.
But it took 27 years for the movie to
be made. And I think it was worth the wait. For a project of this scope and
magnitude, there were an awful lot of novices: first-time feature director Rob
Marshall, a veteran musical theater choreographer; Oscar-winning writer Bill
Condon, had never written a musical. And some movie stars had never been in
one: Renee Zellweger, who glitters as the impressionable, unexpectedly
sympathetic Roxie, and John C. Reilly as her hopelessly invisible husband. Some
stars surprise us: stunning Catherine Zeta-Jones, a killer singer and dancer as
the murderous Velma Kelly, actually got her start in musical theater. Richard
Gere, who plays the slick, slimy lawyer Billy Flynn, reportedly took the role
because he wanted his 2-year old to see him tap dance.
Marshall and Condon enhanced the
structure for the big screen. So now there's a major divide between the reality
of the cynical story and the fantasy of Roxie's imagination, where all the
fabulous songs are staged. Roxie's got stars in her eyes; here, unlike the
stage version, every number is played out surreally as a vaudeville routine:
from the torch song to the Big Mama belter (done to the hilt by Queen Latifah),
even a hilarious ventriloquist act. It's a brilliant reconception -- as seedy
and sordid as the original, but with a decidedly filmic razzle-dazzle. Maybe
these aren't true theatrical triple-threats -- actor-singer-dancers; they're
movie stars, and we love to see them shine in a new way. The direction and
choreography inventively mask how little Zellweger or Gere actually move,
capitalizing instead on their star power: Zeta-Jones' tough sultriness the
perfect counterpart to Zellweger's vulnerable pout; Gere as the charming cad
with the seductive twinkle in his eye. There's more than a whiff of 'Cabaret'
here, homage to Fosse, but it feels creative and new. In this upside-down
Cinderella story, evil triumphs over good, and that's not dusty history; think
O.J. in those sleazy courtroom scenes, with all their fancy footwork. As the
song goes, "How can they see with sequins in their eyes?" The movie
is good to its word: Gorgeous, dazzling, irresistible. Celebrity, murder, and
amorality never looked so good.
©2003
Patté Productions Inc.