Pop.
Six.
Squish.
Uh-uh.
Cicero.
Lipschitz.
And now, the STAR Ltd kids of the Chesapeake Arts Center, in their rendition of Chicago: Teen Edition. Ladies and Gentlemen and Enbees: you are about to see a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery… tamped down a bit, because “teen edition”…but still, it’s all those gruesome, scintillating sins that every lover of the Kander & Ebb musical Chicago holds near and dear to their heart! And when I say these kids are slaying like the six merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail? You better believe it! Directed by Jenna Buzard (with assistants Liam Bierley and Philip Lohrfink) with Musical Direction by Andrew Stewart, and Choreography by Lauren Lowell (and Claire O’Donnell), this sassy, jazzy classic is featuring all of STAR’s finest on the stage giving the performance of a lifetime.
It takes a village, as they say, or perhaps in the case of Chicago, a whole crew of mobsters to get a show up and on its feet to really give audiences that razzle-dazzle theatrical spectacle they expect when they come to live theatre. From Kingpin Christopher Kabara (producer) to Pit Boss Kevin Bochinski (technical director) to Street Slinger Skylar Bacon (crew chief) and all the little members of a good old fashioned ‘Chicago Family’ (Crew: Amber Broadwater, Bentley Cech, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, Olivia Johnston, Wynn Lowell, Mi Mi, Katie Muhr, Jacinda Pintuck, Kaleb Pintuck, Bea Santa Rita, Addison Smith, Brady Woods, Leo Worthington) the whole shebang is hot like a live wire and twice as entertaining!
The show itself is meant to be somewhat of a visual spectacle, even the dialed-back teen edition (which has no rhyme or reason to what specifically it chooses to eliminate because of “mature content” but hey— that’s on Concord Theatricals not anyone at STAR), and the whole production team ensures that the audience gets a great deal that is aesthetically pleasing. Everything from the big baby grand center stage (with the two live musicians— musical director Andrew Stewart on the piano and Chris Pierorazio on drums) to the light-up, hot-box style ‘curtain frames’ that underscore the two lifted platforms. Costumer Cami Neary takes the aesthetic wonders of the show a step further, giving us both the rough-n-tumble nitty-gritty look of “all blacks and fishnets” for the better part of the performance, but including some illustrious sequins, bugle beads, and shimmy-dresses for effect when necessary. Neary and Director Jenna Buzard even put clever colorful touches to each of the ‘six merry murderesses’ when it comes time for the “Cell Block Tango.” Pink neckerchief, green gloves, blue kitchen apron, lilac tie-skirt, red tinsel skirt, and a yellow beret give each of the girls featured in this number a special ‘pop’ (or squish, six, uh-uh, Cicero, Lipschitz…if you will) to their performance.
Director Jenna Buzard works in tandem with Lead Choreographer Lauren Lowell and Choreographer Claire O’Donnell to really get the jazzy vibe of Chicago at the time infused into every moment of the show, and not just the splashy dance numbers like “All That Jazz” and “We Both Reached For the Gun.” The energy never dips, the show is well-paced, and the choreography is a lot of fun with lots of throwback moves to the times, particularly when it comes to the solo shuffle steps, the swinging finger wiggles, and the overall Vaudeville vibe. Buzard, Lowell, and O’Donnell pack plenty of punches into the performance and it shows well on stage throughout the entirety of the performance.
The Ensemble (Katherine Bartles, Vivian Coolahan, Jenna Dodge, Rachel England, Nolan Hirschfeld, James MacLellan, Grace Marsh, Erin Moran, Claire O’Donnell, Rose Ocone, Adele Smith, Sofie Quirk) does an exceptional job of keeping up all the high energy in those aforementioned dance numbers and being background characters, and sometimes even foreground characters. Like Rose Ocone who gets to play Mary Sunshine with a featured solo during “We Both Reached For the Gun”, and the Cell Block Tango quintet Rachel England as Pop, Katherine Bartles as Six, Grace Marsh as Squish, Sofie Quirk as Uh-Uh, and Claire O’Donnell as Lipschitz; those five, alongside Velma Kelly, put some real racy roaring fury into that number and the dance routine that accompanies it, starting out behind bars on the raised platforms and thundering their way down to the main stage to present the solo segments of the song.
In a move that is somewhat unique to STAR Ltd productions, their production of Chicago: Teen Edition, has two roles that share principal actors— Matron Mama Morton (Kennedy Grant and Adele Smith) and Amos Hart (Sean Davis and James MacLellan.) Presented with the unique opportunity to see both performers do their feature number (don’t ask, it’s theatre magic) it can be said that they’ve got four incredibly talented performers giving unique takes on these staple characters. As the loud-mouthed mother-hen of the jailhouse, Adele Smith’s Mama Morton is bombastic and takes up every inch of vocal space during “When You’re Good To Mama.” Taking a subtler and more slinky, conniving approach to the character, which serves the notion of a sleek jailhouse marm, Kennedy Grant shows a completely different side of Matron Mama Morton; both Grant and Smith give a good performance and really sell their take on the character.
Davis and MacLellan as Amos Hart are equally, intentionally milquetoast. Davis has a bit more animation in his day-to-day interactions and really tamps down his performance of “Mister Cellophane” bringing his own quirky humors to the number, whereas MacLellan is channeling Joel Gray in a big, splashy fashion when he finally lays into “Mister Cellophane”, which draws a sharp contrast to the way he delivers the final, humble and sad line of that number. Both fellas are knocking it out of the park with the comic timing, gesture-dancing, and overall tonal quality they deliver during that critical number.
In the disposable role of Fred Casely, Lukas O’Boyle isn’t much to write home about. (It’s a disposable role; he gets to be a corpse for most of it!) But as the Emcee, O’Boyle is serving up some textbook showmanship and hosting capabilities. The Emcee characters slinks around introducing musical numbers and scenes and O’Boyle has that ringmaster quality spot on when it comes to announcing these various moments throughout the performance. He also dances in and out of numbers and is an excellent addition to the show.
Silver-tongued charming Prince of the courtroom and debonair, dashing, loaded with vocal prowess (and an apparently sharp sense of improvisational skills) Gabe Viets is wearing Billy Flynn like a second skin, sliding onto the stage, smarming and charming his way through scenes and songs. He’s oily, unctuous, and utterly dazzling, especially when he’s first introduced, schmoozing and oozing his way through “All I Care About Is Love.” Anyone can sing the song; of course Viets does that superbly as well, but it takes a real actor to have a handle on that serpentine charm of Billy Flynn and Viets has that down, 100%. And good grief, when he rolls into “We Both Reached for the Gun” the nasally falsetto voice he uses to ‘embody Roxie’ is hysterical. And what a belt. What sustain. What tonal control and pitch quality; Viets comes second only to Siss and Sass (Roxie and Velma) in this production and is a true triple threat to be sure.
See that Kelly girl— when Ella Juengst takes the stage! Serving up severe sass and sensuality like no other, Juengst is an outstanding saucy saucepot (it’s the teen edition; that’s about as ‘saucy’ as descriptions can be, folks) with resting-pissed-face for miles. Bursting out in that infamous opening number, Juengst makes “All That Jazz” roar to the rafters and back (and shoutout to Buzard, Lowell, and O’Donnell for choreographing a lift-n-carry of her character on the line “…bet’cha lucky Lindy never flew so high!”) and really sells that number as the cannonball splash-opening that it’s meant to be. It sets the bar high for the rest of the show, and Juengst, along with the rest of the cast, delivers. With her indefatigable energy for “I Can’t Do It Alone” she races and spins and really puts the charm on for that number, and she goes all-out with that sensational voice and all those moves during “When Velma Takes The Stand.” There’s even a softer side to Juengst’s performance during “Nowadays” and “My Own Best Friend.” She really is— all that jazz!
The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be— Ari! Mitchell, that is. Ari Mitchell taking up the role of foxy, Roxie Hart with great aplomb is giving Ella Juengst a run for her money. The pairs mouth off at one another brilliantly and they’re equally matched as far as vocal titans go when it comes to belting their faces off in this show. Mitchell masterfully traverses the tempestuous waters of being ‘innocent girly Roxie’ to ‘saucy-saucepot Roxie’ and all the variations of Roxie in-between. When she’s belting out her first big number, “Funny Honey” you really get a sense of her character. Mitchell’s physicality is absolutely hysterical when she becomes a puppet for Billy Flynn during “We Both Reached for the Gun”; her body goes limp, bobbling from side to side and her lips are rigid and stiff— stuck in that blow-up doll surprise-mouth look— when she’s ‘singing’ as his puppet. That whole number is insanely absurd and it reaches new heights of laugh-out-loud nonsense with Mitchell being bounced along all throughout— she even dead-drops to the floor and collapses in a proper puppet-body slump right overtop of the grand piano. And when she sells “Roxie” you 100% believe all of the charisma and positivity that she’s pedaling. Both Mitchell and Juengst were made for these roles and the square off so perfectly that it’s difficult to imagine anyone else doing them.
STAR Ltd. is absolutely razzle-dazzling the audience with this stellar production of Chicago: Teen Edition and it would be a crime if you didn’t get tickets to see it this summer!
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours with one intermission
Chicago: Teen Edition plays through July 31, 2022 with STAR Ltd. on the main stage of the Chesapeake Arts Center— 194 Hammonds Lane in Brooklyn Park, MD. Tickets are available at the door or in advance online.
STAR Ltd. has launched a new partnership with the Chesapeake Arts Center and will be bringing more performance opportunities to the main stage of the CAC facility this winter; stay tuned to their website for more information!
