Although...
People who have seen the revival of Chicago think they know everything about the show, and the revival excises Fosse's concept from the original production.
Each of the numbers had a vaudeville conceit in Fosse's original. The style was deliberately ironic. "Funny Honey" was performed atop a piano, a la Helen Morgan. "All I Need Is Love" was performed with the fans, with Billy stripping down to his shorts (for the tailor scene which followed the number and has been cut in the revival - losing the immortal line, "Ouch! Watch what you're doing, ya dumb fruit!") in a parody of a Sally Rand "fan" number. Amos performed "Cellophane" with a celluloid collar, to evoke Bert Williams and his Ziegfeld Follies classic, "Nobody", etc.
Given that people are no longer familiar with vaudeville performing styles, it isn't fatal that these concepts were cut, and the book trims make the show leaner and meaner. However, I do miss them, and have felt that a sameness sets in at the revival with the concepts for the numbers no longer in place.
It becomes people in black concert dress performing a bunch of numbers from Chicago. But certainly, people seem to respond to the immediacy of this Chicago in ways they didn't to Fosse's original.
So, my point, and I do have one...I was happy when I saw the movie to see some of Fosse's concepts for the numbers back in place. It gave them back some of their character and individuality, even though the work is Marshall's.
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
Updated On: 8/9/03 at 09:03 AM
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