Chicago

Bord Gais Energy Theatre

Bob Fosse’s Chicago is based on a real-life 1920s celebrity-style trial, in which a minor chorus girl was prosecuted for the murder of her lover. The touring production that has just opened at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre stages a celebrity trial of its own. Featuring two former soap-stars (Ali Bastian and Tupele Dorgu) as the female leads, a prolific ex-boy-band member (Duncan James) as the male hero, and one of Ireland’s best-known pop exports of the early 1980s (Bernie Nolan of the Nolan Sisters) in a key supporting role, it is not just the killer characters of Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly who are hoping to defend their reputation, and for the most part the cast acquit themselves well. If the acting suffers at the hands of the production’s aggressive pacing, the vocal delivery is excellent, and Duncan James in particular stands out as Billy Flynn.

John Lee Beatty’s stage design acknowledges the multiple layers of performativity by marking the stage area out with a series of gilded picture frames, one of which holds the orchestra. They sit like a jury on a tiered platform behind musical director Adrian Kirk; a judge conducting proceedings. Beatty’s design leaves only a shallow space for the ensemble set-pieces. However, Ann Reinking’s choreography, with its jazzy, finger-clicking, shoulder-rolling tribute to Fosse, uses this potential limitation as an opportunity for intimacy, and the leather- and lace-clad dancers respond with exuberance.

If the main thrust of Chicago is a joyful exposure of a show trial, where the press-hungry public determine Roxie and Velma’s fate, ultimately it is the audience who will decide whether this new production works. Clapping in time to the abundance of complex, catchy numbers in John Kander’s score – All That Jazz, Nowadays, Mr Cellophane – the audience on opening night were certainly razzle-dazzled by the starry turns and the uninhibited spirit of the ensemble cast. As canny musical producers know, it can be difficult to be cynical when you have “sequins in your eyes”; luckily there is more than enough substance to warrant this production’s success.

Until September 1st