FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 5, 2016
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
603.646.3991
Murder, greed, corruption, treachery and razzle dazzle:
Chicago comes to the Dartmouth stage Feb 19-28
Photo:Bianca Marroquin and Tony Yazbeck as Roxie Hart and Billy Flynn in Broadway revival of Chicago.Photo by Jeremy Daniel.
HANOVER, NH—Winner of six Tony awards, a Grammy, and the honor of being the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, Chicagomakes its way to the Hop this winter a Dartmouth Department of Theater production featuring a stellar creative team.
The shows take place Friday and Saturday, February 19 & 20, and Thursday through Saturday, February 25-27, at 8 pm, and Sundays, February 21 and 28, at 2 pm, in The Moore Theater of the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
Murder, greed, corruption and treachery of all types make for great entertainment in this classic American theatrical work. Set amidst the flashy decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover and transforms her malicious crime into sensational headlines reminiscent of today’s tabloids. The edgy storyline is rocket-propelled by a tart, jazzy score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, featuring such Broadway standards as All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, Mr. Cellophane and Razzle Dazzle.
Direction is by Carol Dunne, artistic director for Northern Stage in White River Junction, VT, and a Distinguished Lecturer in Dartmouth’s Department of Theater. At Dartmouth, Dunne introduced musical theater into the curriculum and directed shows including Hair, The Rocky Horror Show, Eurydice, Hairsprayand Angels in America. Prior to taking the helm at Northern Stage three years ago, she served for seven years as Producing Artistic Director of the New London Barn Playhouse, during which time it became New Hampshire’s leading musical theater and garnered more New Hampshire Professional theater awards than any other theater in that period. At Northern Stage, she has directed the acclaimed productions of Into the Woods, Good People, White Christmas, The Importance of Being Earnest and Songs for a New World, in which she also performed. Under the leadership of Dunne and Managing Director Eric Bunge, Northern Stage recently opened its new home, the $7.5 million dollar Barrette Center for the Arts.
Why present Chicago in 2016? “I saw a poster on Facebook that said: ‘Stop making stupid people famous.’ “ said Dunne. “Chicago captures the craze of instant and meaningless celebrity. We feel that Chicago, a sexy send up of the jazz age, perfectly skewers our relentlessly restless social media age.”
Dunne’s creative team includes music director Andy Roninson, who has music directed and conducted at regional theaters (Park Playhouse, the New London Barn Playhouse) as well as at colleges (Dartmouth College, Fordham University, Purchase College) and various workshops and readings in New York City (Off-Broadway'sTriassic Parq, AWOL's 8 Minute Musicals.); choreographer Keith Coughlin, current Producing Artistic Director at the New London Barn Playhouse, whose work has graced the Barn and the Dartmouth stages (Hairspray, Spring Awakening), as well as a national tour of Clifford the Big Red Dog Live and Click Clack Moo!, productions at Cape Repertory Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, Papermill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, Sacramento Music Circus and Geva Theatre; set designer Michael Ganio, who has worked extensively for leading regional theaters around the country; and, from the Dartmouth Department of Theater, costume designer Laurie Churba and lighting designer Dan Kotlowitz, whose work can been seen both at Dartmouth and in other theaters around the country. Dartmouth juniorKyla Mermejo-Varga is stage manager.
With music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse, Chicago is set in Prohibition-era Chicago and based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"—a concept all too familiar to today’s public. Watkins based her play on the trials of accused murderers Beulah Annan (the model for the character Roxie Hart) and Belva Gaertner (the model for Velma Kelly)—respectively, a young wife and divorced cabaret singer who were both acquitted, giving rise to the lore that, in Chicago, attractive women could literally get away with murder. Their lawyers, William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien, were models for the slick and successful attorney Billy Flynn.
Walker’s wildly popular columns prompted her to write a play that had a successful Broadway run and was turned into both silent and “talkie” films. Fosse acquired the rights to the play in 1969 and brought in Kander and Ebb, who had scored their first big hit with the musical Cabaret in 1966. Kander and Ebb’s work subsequent to Chicago includesKiss of the Spider Woman and the movie New York, New York.
The original Broadway production opened in New York City in 1975 and was revived on Broadway in 1996. The revival holds the record as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, and is the second longest-running show in Broadway history, behind only The Phantom of the Opera. The Academy Award-winning 2002 film version of the musical was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, and Queen Latifah.
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A Musical Vaudeville: Chicago
Murder. Greed. Corruption. Treachery. Set amidst the flashy decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover and transforms her malicious crime into sensational headlines reminiscent of today’s tabloids. The edgy storyline is rocket-propelled by a tart, jazzy score featuring such Broadway standards as All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, Mr. Cellophane and Razzle Dazzle. Directed by Carol Dunne.
Friday & Saturday, February 19 & 20, 8 pm
Thursday-Saturday, February 25-27, 8 pm
Sundays, February 21 & 29, 2 pm
The Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
$15, Dartmouth students $5, all other students $10
Information: hop.dartmouth.edu or 603.646.2422
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Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.