“He is good at walking the line of things being fun and playful and getting to the meat of the work, which means we get more done,” Sturm said. Our need to have a platform has multiplied itself a hundred times over.”īowden and Sturm have great respect for Jones and his directing. “In ‘Chicago,’ people who are desperate to become famous check their morality at the door,” he said. One theme of “Chicago,” Jones said, is particularly relevant today: the cult of celebrity. “Coming to a new place, I’m watching all these talented people in front of me, and I feel like I’m half a step behind.” “She starts the show on top, and her world crumbles,” Bowden said. Roles come in our lives when they’re supposed to.”īowden, an Australia native who has been prominent in Berlin’s theater scene, has been dreaming of playing Velma for almost 20 years. “It’s a specific perspective that not everyone gets,” Sturm said. Like Roxie, Sturm has waited years for her leading role, having been an ensemble dancer for most of her theater career. The musical has proven somewhat autobiographical for its two leads: Sturm, who plays Roxie, and Sarah Bowden, who steps into the role of Velma, one half of a former sibling cabaret duo who feels threatened by Roxie after the latter starts stealing her fame. As a musical that mainly relies on a story and having people in one costume, Jones plans to breathe new life into its physical world, like set design and technological advances, while honoring the show’s original material. He is bringing new choreography, staging and costuming to the show. “My desire is not to turn it upside down, but to make it fresh and new.” “I think it’s important to create something for that end,” he said. Songs like “All That Jazz” and “Cell Block Tango” have become staples in the libraries of dedicated musical theater fans, and Fosse’s jazz dance choreography has become delightfully familiar all over the world.įor the Maltz production, Jones felt an obligation to deliver an experience that is both familiar and inspiring to the audience. Originally choreographed by Fosse, the musical opened on Broadway in 1975 but didn’t become a hit until its 1996 revival, which won five Tony Awards, followed by an Academy Award-winning film in 2002 starring Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones. While there, she meets a slew of crooked female criminals including Velma Kelly, who competes with Roxie to hire lawyer Billy Flynn, who turns their incarceration into a media frenzy. The musical tells the story of Roxie Hart, who dreams of being a vaudeville star in 1928 Chicago but is sent to the Cook County Jail after committing a crime of passion. “It’s dark and sexy yet sparkly and buoyant at the same time.” “The score (by John Kander) is so strong, the book (by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb) is so funny and tight, and there are opportunities to dance,” said Jones, who is based in New York. He said “Chicago” is beloved to audiences, and it’s a show that many actors want to be in. It’s a safe space.”Īdapting the second-longest running show in Broadway history into a production exclusive to the Maltz wasn’t a difficult task for Tony Award-nominated director-choreographer Denis Jones, who starred in the revival in 2006. “I feel free to explore and try new things. “They take such good care of us,” she said. However, actress Samantha Sturm already feels like the Maltz is home. The 20-member cast has been rehearsing six days a week from 10 a.m. Six words that will make much more sense after seeing “Chicago,” opening at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre on Jan.
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