while scrolling Instagram videos last week I came across several that featured devoted fans gushing over the Broadway debut of Whitney Leavitt as the new Roxie Hart in the Broadway revival of Chicago...now in its 30th year...many of you are thinking who?...Whitney appeared in the Hulu series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives...and then gained national attention on last season's Dancing With The Stars...and they use the term "stars" very loosely...as social media permeates every inch of our lives...we, as a society, use that term "stars" pretty loosely too...the powerhouse that is Chicago has not shied away from putting a sliding scale of celebrity in starring roles over the years...to boost ticket sales?...Walter Bobbie, who as director, brought this incredible revival to Broadway...with the late, great Ann Reinking...has always felt that using celebrities bolstered by the best dancers reinforces the underlying theme of the show...fame, media manipulation, etc...not so sure Ms. Reinking or the original creator and genius Bob Fosse would agree...but they are not here to comment...when Chicago opened on Broadway in 1975 we were a country still reeling from our exit from Vietnam and the sting of Watergate...we, as an audience, perhaps did not want the subtext of the Kander and Ebb songs...the not so subtle irony that pervaded Fosse's vision...oh, and there was a little musical that also opened that year...A Chorus Line...Chicago closed after just two years...by the time the Chicago revival opened in 1996...we were much more jaded...we thought we were impervious to media manipulation...despite having survived the greatest performance by an actor in the 20th century...Ronald Reagan...but that revival...there was Bebe Neuwirth, slinky and wry...James Naughton...Joel Grey...and oh yes...Ann Reinking...those legs and husky voice and every shimmy a love note to Fosse...and then it was Pamela Anderson...Billy Ray Cyrus...and Bravo housewives...all while the best voices and legs stood in the wings and toiled eight shows a week...not good...makes me think of that song from Gypsy...You Gotta Have a Gimmick...please Mr. Bobbie...stop with the wannabee celebrity whoring in Chicago...or just admit the show is no more the acerbic vision of one of Broadway's greatest visionaries...and just a 21st century bump and grind burlesque...with wilting razzle dazzle...
No comments:
Post a Comment