Murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, adultery, treachery… and All That Jazz… so begins the international multi-award-winning musical. The longest-running musical on Broadway, Chicago is now playing in Melbourne, followed by Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.
Set amidst the decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer Billy Flynn to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today’s tabloids.
It stars Anthony Warlow as Billy Flynn; Zoë Ventoura as nightclub singer and vaudevillian Velma Kelly; Lucy Maunder as Roxie Hart; Peter Rowsthorn as Roxie’s gullible and hapless husband, Amos; and Asabi Goodman as sassy prison warden Matron ‘Mama’ Morton.
For more information and tickets, go to: chicagomusical.com.au.
What’s something you enjoy about your role or something that’s similar to your own personality that you feel you bring out in your role?
Peter Rowsthorn: I’m not sure there’s anything about me, but what I enjoy about it is the audience react a particular way to me at certain points. Where they go, oh, it’s like a pantomime or something, like people will yell out… and they really go nuts. And anything about me and the audience is. I connect pretty well with people, and I connect well with audiences too.
Asabi Goodman: I love Mama’s strength, and you do get to see a vulnerable moment for her, but she’s pretty strong, and I love playing that kind of strong character, and I get to boss people around. Because I don’t really boss people around in my real life [laughs].
Peter, you’re mostly known for your comedic roles, so how have people taken to you in a more dramatic kind of role, especially such a large audience?
Peter: I made it sort of, it starts out dramatic, but by the time I’m doing bits of Cellophane, just because of my body and the way that I have long limbs, there’s certain moves that happen that people just go, that’s just ridiculous, and they laugh, but that’s cool. And so I’ve made him kind of warmer, not invisible.
He knows he’s invisible, but I’ve made him more engaged with the audience and a lot of warmth, so they feel sorry for him in the end, feel a lot of pity. Not pity, then they get joy that he walks away strong. So yeah, I’ve taken him on a little journey, but it’s like I say, I don’t get much stage time, so I’ve got to do a lot with a little. And so, when I’m out there, I try and be high impact.
Why do you guys think that people need to come see Chicago?
Asabi: It’s great storytelling, first and foremost. It’s iconic, the dance moves are iconic, the music is iconic, and it’s a great way to introduce people to theatre. Nothing is hidden. There’s no magic in it, so everything you see is raw. It’s raw talent, raw performance, and it’s rare to see that nowadays.
Peter: And based on a true story, I love that.
Did you guys take any inspiration from previous productions or 2002 film of the same name?
Peter: I’ve never seen it. When I’m in the rehearsal hall, I go, “that’s a good song.” I don’t think I need to [see it]. I’ve [played Amos] 150 times. The film, I’ve seen glimpses of what John C. Reilly did, which is very filmic and very different, with sadness to it all. [I’m only on stage] for 12 minutes, I don’t want to be sad.
Asabi: And the film is so different to the stage version because all of the imagination is sort of taken out of it because it just puts it right on film, so you just see it. Whereas with the stage version, you can imagine certain things. There are only a few costume changes – I think only Velma and Roxy ever have costume changes, and that’s it, so it’s very raw.
I’ve seen clips of the 1981 version that was done here in Australia, which was the very first one. That one was a bit more circusy, a bit different. They had different costumes [and] a special announcer that came out to announce everything. So, they had different characters even. I really like this because everyone in the show plays a part. Everyone is an actor. Everyone is, well I’m not, a dancer. Everyone is a singer. So, it’s true about the triple threat. You have to be able to do it all in this show. That’s what people come to see.
If you could play one of the other characters, you can only pick one, which one would you play?
Asabi: Billy Flynn.
Peter: Velma.
Asabi: They’d change the choreography for you. You’d be a great Velma.
Peter: You have to simplify [the dancing] a little bit.
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 