Troupe 5368 is putting on a new show this month for their one-act competition: Chicago – Teen Edition by David Thompson. The one-act competition is optional for students and therefore is completely outside school hours, requiring a very high level of dedication.
Chicago was originally a play written in 1926 by a journalist named Maurine Dallas Watkins based on crimes that she reported on. It was later adapted into a musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse in 1975.
The play’s plot focused on vaudevillian actresses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart committing murder and being imprisoned for doing so. Their lawyer, Billy Flynn, makes a circus out of Roxie’s trial in order to grant her fame and fortune in her vaudevillian career. After being acquitted, Roxie’s fame is stolen by another murder case, so she decides to join Velma back on the vaudeville stage in a two-person act.
The Nofo stage director, Colleen Martin, decided to put on Chicago specifically because “I have a group of seniors that are strong dancers this year, and I wanted them to have an opportunity to dance,” The musical contains many diverse dance routines developed by Bob Fosse, all with an extremely unique style, creating that sought-after vaudeville style and adding to it with every choreographic sequence.
When asked about the hardest part of directing the musical, Mrs. Martin said, “The hardest part is the choreography by far… teaching that choreography to our students has been the biggest, probably the place where we spend the most time.” The choreography is a major part of the musical, with most scenes containing very complex dance routines to go with their musical numbers. The most notable dance numbers are “All That Jazz” and “The Cell Block Tango.”
Some smaller details to notice are the door frames that are present in many scenes of the show, as they were put together by the tech crew themselves and have a light-up feature to fit the vaudeville theme. Another detail to notice is the costumes. Characters such as Roxie and Velma have outfits that are detailed and intricate; however, many of the costumes are very complex and thought out, such as Matron “Mama” Morton’s outfit, having the base along with a scarf and lots of jewelry.
