September Theatre: Chicago
So for our September Theatre, we decided to go see Chicago (official site, review) at the San Diego Civic Theatre as part of Broadway San Diego. As a real treat George Hamilton was cast as lawyer Billy Flynn. What I didn't realize was that George Hamilton also played Billy Flynn on Broadway, in 2001 and 2002 revivals of the play. I, however, know George Hamilton primarily from his role in Zorro, the Gay Blade. As it turns out, Billy Flynn has been played by a number of well known actors from the screen. The movie version of Chicago features Richard Gere, and the original 1975 Broadway production of Chicago was played by none other than Law and Order's Jerry Orbach!
The production was exciting, lively, fun, and talented. I thoroughly enjoyed watching George Hamilton in person. Unfortunately, I'm afraid my enjoyment was primarily fed by hype though, rather than an especially talented production. On the plus side, the dancing was quite good -- worth seeing in person. But otherwise, our opinion of the play was that you may be better of watching the DVD. In the DVD, you get better sets, better articulation, closer views. There were many parts of the play in which it was just hard to understand what they were saying. Had I not seen the movie, I think I might have been confused in many places. Other pros about seeing it in person: the puppet scene worked better on stage, and I don't recall the "Mr. Cellophane" song from the movie (it may just have not been as notable). Finally, two notables: First, there wasn't much to the set. It seemed the play was an attempt to do a play within a play. The actors interacted a bit both with the audience and the band, which was itself on stage rather than in the pit. This was a bit interesting to me. Second, there seemed to be places in the play where the audience as a whole felt the need to call out and shout stuff. It didn't seem prompted, and I don't believe it was completely spontaneous. I felt like it was somehow brought in from elsewhere, and that it was simply the way the audience was "supposed" to watch Chicago.
Finally, as a note to all you theatre goers: DON'T SING THE SONGS ALONG WITH THE CAST OR DO PUNCHILINES WITH THE DIALOG UNLESS SPECIFICALLY ASKED TO DO SO BY THE SHOW. The woman seated next to me had the bad habit of doing parts of the script/soundtrack with the cast. It was very annoying. I glared at her a few times, but I'm not sure she noticed. It certainly didn't seem to bother her.
The production was exciting, lively, fun, and talented. I thoroughly enjoyed watching George Hamilton in person. Unfortunately, I'm afraid my enjoyment was primarily fed by hype though, rather than an especially talented production. On the plus side, the dancing was quite good -- worth seeing in person. But otherwise, our opinion of the play was that you may be better of watching the DVD. In the DVD, you get better sets, better articulation, closer views. There were many parts of the play in which it was just hard to understand what they were saying. Had I not seen the movie, I think I might have been confused in many places. Other pros about seeing it in person: the puppet scene worked better on stage, and I don't recall the "Mr. Cellophane" song from the movie (it may just have not been as notable). Finally, two notables: First, there wasn't much to the set. It seemed the play was an attempt to do a play within a play. The actors interacted a bit both with the audience and the band, which was itself on stage rather than in the pit. This was a bit interesting to me. Second, there seemed to be places in the play where the audience as a whole felt the need to call out and shout stuff. It didn't seem prompted, and I don't believe it was completely spontaneous. I felt like it was somehow brought in from elsewhere, and that it was simply the way the audience was "supposed" to watch Chicago.
Finally, as a note to all you theatre goers: DON'T SING THE SONGS ALONG WITH THE CAST OR DO PUNCHILINES WITH THE DIALOG UNLESS SPECIFICALLY ASKED TO DO SO BY THE SHOW. The woman seated next to me had the bad habit of doing parts of the script/soundtrack with the cast. It was very annoying. I glared at her a few times, but I'm not sure she noticed. It certainly didn't seem to bother her.