25th anniversary tour of 'Chicago' brings 'Razzle Dazzle' to OKC: What you need to know

More than 25 years after its wildly successful revival, the iconic musical "Chicago" has lost none of its "Razzle Dazzle."

While the themes are still as timely as ever, the Tony Award-winning tale of murder, greed and all that jazz is literally the stuff of legends: Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse wrote the book for the show, a sultry and sophisticated satire about the American press, criminal justice system and obsession with celebrity. "Chicago" boasts one of the all-time great musical theater scores, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb, and it remains one of the most popular showcases for Fosse's distinctively jazzy choreography.

An add-on special to OKC Broadway's 2023-24 subscription season, the national tour of "Chicago" is playing Oklahoma City for the first time in a decade, with performances continuing through Sunday, April 14 at Civic Center Music Hall.

What is the musical 'Chicago' about?

The longest-running show currently playing on Broadway, "Chicago" is set in the 1920s and inspired by true events. Initially written as a 1926 play by journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins, the musical adaptation's original Broadway production bowed in 1975 and starred Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach and Gwen Verdon. It ran for more than 900 performances and was nominated for 11 Tonys, but shut out by another dance smash, "A Chorus Line."

Starring Bebe Neuwirth, Joel Grey and Ann Reinking — a replacement performer from the original Broadway production who reprised the role and choreographed the show "in the style of Bob Fosse" — it was the 1996 Broadway revival that turned "Chicago" into an iconic song-and-dance extravaganza. It earned six Tonys, including best musical revival, and is being celebrated with the 25th anniversary tour now playing OKC.

The deliciously dastardly story follows Roxie Hart (2021 Oklahoma City University alumnus Katie Frieden), a vain and ambitious housewife and nightclub dancer who dreams of becoming a vaudeville star. When her illicit lover, Fred Casely (Ed Gotthelf), tries to ditch her, hotheaded Roxie guns him down and tries to get her devoted but dim-witted husband Amos (Robert Quiles) to take the blame.

That doesn't work, so Roxie is locked up on the women's block in the Cook County Jail, where several "merry murderesses" are awaiting trial for killing their no-good husbands or boyfriends. The block is run by corrupt Matron "Mama" Morton (Illeana "illy" Kirven), who is happy to help the inmates use the charges against them to gain fame and fortunate — but only for a price.

Desperate to avoid being hanged for murder, Roxie sets out to outwit the public, the press and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly (Kailin Brown), a cynical ex-vaudeville star rightly accused of slaying her cheating husband and sister in a jealous rage. Roxie enlists Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn (Connor Sullivan), to both cast her as a sympathetic figure so she can avoid conviction and nab her enough scandalous headlines so that she can launch the show-biz career of her dreams.

How does the 25th anniversary tour of 'Chicago' measure up to all that jazz?

It's not hard to figure out why "Chicago" is the second-longest running title in Broadway history: The show boasts a tantalizing trio of iconic smashes with "All That Jazz," "Razzle Dazzle" and "Cell Block Tango," but there's not a single dud on the list of musical numbers.

And for dance fans, "Chicago" is arguably the ultimate musical theater experience. The 25th anniversary tour is directed by David Hyslop with choreography by Gregory Butler based on the original direction by Tony winner Walter Bobbie and Reinking's original Tony-winning choreography. Although it leaves out the finger snaps, it maintains the rest of Fosse's signature moves, from the sultry shoulder, hip and wrist rolls and the cheekily turned-in knees to the famous jazz hands and the canny use of chairs, walking sticks and bowler hats.

The minimalist set design by Tony winner John Lee Beatty puts the song-and-dance spectacle right up front: The stage is dominated by a multi-tiered riser showcasing the sizzling jazz orchestra under the direction of Cameron Blake Kinnear, who frequently interacts with the actors and mugs for the crowd.

The skilled and athletic ensemble clearly was assembled with a focus on making sure the dance sequences dazzle, with plenty of dizzying spins, high kicks and jaw-dropping lifts that often had the audience for the April 10 OKC performance audibly oohing and ahhing.

There were moments that it seemed like the show had sacrified vocal power in favor of dance prowess: The singers were occasionally drowned out by the musicians on challenging yet crowd-pleasing numbers like "Cell Block Tango" and "All That Jazz." But their dynamite dancing made it seem like a worthwhile trade-off.

Brown possessed both the skills and the style to wow on the tricky dance-centric number "When Velma Takes the Stand," but she and Kirven also delivered a duet on "Class" that was both vocally pleasing and ripe with irony. Quiles' turn as Roxie's sad-sack spouse never failed to provoke sympathy, especially on his stellar white-gloved rendition of Amos' ode "Mister Cellophane."

A graduate of OCU's Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment, Frieden proved she is a triple-threat in the making, delivering sharp dance moves, expressive acting and stalwart vocals on her big numbers "Roxie" and "Me and My Baby." She and Sullivan practically stopped the show with their excellent teamwork on "We Both Reached for the Gun," as Billy literally controls Roxie like a ventriloquist with a dummy during a pivotal press conference.

Starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, Rob Marshall's Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation helped popularize "Chicago" and its songs. But for most musical theater fans (myself included), it's practically impossible for a movie to beat the energy of a live performance, especially when it comes to a show as razzle-dazzle as "Chicago."

'CHICAGO'

• When: Through April 14.

• Where: Civic Center, 201 N Walker.

• Tickets: https://www.okcbroadway.com/chicago

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Chicago' musical playing in Oklahoma City for first time in decade