The New Albany High School Drama Department is proud to present the classic musical Chicago as its 2011 – 2012 season opener. The musical is an adaptation of journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins’s play Chicago, which itself was based on two murder trials Watkins covered for the Chicago Tribune in the mid-1920s. After securing the rights to Watkins’s play, famed choreographer Bob Fosse worked with the composer John Kander and the lyricist Fred Ebb to create one of the most influential musical satires of all time. Satires ridicule human follies, shortcomings, and vices with the hope this ridicule will spur a change in society. Chicago’s satire of the American justice system and the media plays like a pertinent documentary for today’s audiences. The caustic question the musical proposes is: “Why is guilt or innocence in a trial determined by who puts on the better show?”
The show follows the story of Roxie Hart, a young woman who murders her lover and hires the famed attorney Billy Flynn to deliver her innocent verdict. While in jail, she meets other women accused of murder, including the performer Velma Kelly, and bonds with them in their false declarations of innocence. The only innocent character is a Hungarian immigrant, Katalin Hunyak, who cannot speak English but is filled with a love for this country. Her conviction and death underscore not only the blatant prejudice of the nativist jury against a foreigner but also the fact that she is the only one who does not use lies and theatrics to win her case. The audience is meant to feel infuriated at this blatant injustice as we watch the guilty Roxie and Velma, their faces aglow with smiles, Charleston their way to freedom.
Chicago offers a unique experience for our New Albany High School student performers. The highly relevant themes will challenge students’ perceptions of our media-saturated culture and also of high-profile court cases. The show is also a tribute to the theatre and to the time period of the 1920s. The dance numbers Fosse originally choreographed for the show are world-famous, and students will have fun learning an homage to that choreography created by Nikki Tuller and Chrissy Danflous from Broadway Bound Dance Centre. A Tony-award winner for Best Revival and an Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Chicago is a show sure to challenge and delight students and audiences alike.
Tickets sold are for General Admission seating. Please call 614-245-4701 for wheelchair section seating.
