Posted 8:40 am Friday, February 17, 2012
TJC Stages Classic Prohibition Era Musical
By STEWART SMITH
Entertainment Editor
Entertainment Editor
They had it comin'.
Well, if you believe Roxie and Velma, that is. Tyler Junior College is preparing its production of the smash Broadway hit "Chicago," and these two fame-hungry women will take to the stage to sing and dance their way into the limelight.
For the uninitiated, "Chicago" follows Velma (Laura D'Eramo) and Roxie (Sylvia D'Eramo), a vaudeville veteran and a vaudeville hopeful who find themselves on death row. Velma for murdering her husband whom she found in bed with her sister, and Roxie for shooting her lover who failed to follow through on his promise of making her a star. Now the two women must use every bit of charisma and moxie they can muster to get the public on their side and keep themselves from the gallows.
The original Broadway production debuted in 1975 and has been a popular mainstay of stages around the world since the Tony Award-winning 1996 Broadway revival, which is still running on Broadway. The musical also became a six time Oscar winner, including Best Picture, with the Rob Marshall-directed adaptation in 2002. That popularity has extended to TJC's production with the largest audition turnout that director David Crawford said he's ever experienced with more than 80 hopefuls showing up.
"I've been here 36 years and I don't ever remember a turnout like that. They were energized. This was before Christmas," he said. "We're supposed to go home for Christmas the next day and we had 84 people in Wise Auditorium and we're putting them through the acting and the singing and the dancing."
"Chicago" shirks the happy-go-lucky feel often associated with stage musicals for a darker tone, something that has never seemed to affect the show's appeal. The appeal endures, Crawford said, because the story remains relevant, especially for young people.
"It's catchy phrases and catchy tunes. The story, out of the '20s, is right now. The young people relate to it because it seems just like today. These women are hard-pressed, society is against them and they overcome the system. They escape it. It's an empowerment story," Crawford said.
"Your leads and your big numbers are by the women. It's a women's story, by women and for women everywhere. It's a universal statement around the world. That's what's going to make your best stories, something with universal appeal. And, again, I don't care how you dress it up, I liken it to ... one of the most famous musicals, ever 'Cabaret.' It was dark and sad and little musical that caught everybody's imagination, and then you have this type of thing that is almost of the same feeling."
Dark as the show may be, however, Crawford said he didn't want to smother the audience with the more unsavory elements that make up the story.
"I went into it thinking that I don't want to chase after this dark, heavy, sinister plot. I don't want to chase after the sex and the violence," he said. "You've got those things, but you don't have to beat them to death. So I said, let's go after the artistic movement of the time, and I told my designers to go after the Art Deco/Jazz Age feeling of the show. I think they grasped it and I think that brightens it somewhat."
The result is a somewhat minimalist design that is evocative, yet still allows the audience to fill in some gaps on their own.
"I wanted to somehow give a visual art approach to movement, to body demeanor and to method of performance," Crawford said. "As I was looking at it, I realized this production could not have an ultra-modern, supra-realistic approach to acting. It just doesn't flow. I don't feel it. I look at 'Chicago' as an historic piece and I look at it through rose-colored glasses of the Art Deco/Jazz Movement feeling of that age. (Young people) have no real concept of that. We're talking about a method of movement and body language and we're following the large curves and long-flowing lines of Art Deco, but the Jazz Age gave you a sense of (spontaneity)."
TJC's production of "Chicago" will open at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Wise Auditorium. Admission is $5. Tickets may be purchased by calling 903-510-2122 or by visiting the box office from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on weekdays.
