‘Chicago' role a dream

Otago Daily Times

21 hours ago

For some of New Zealand's top performers, the opportunity to tread the boards in a New Zealand production of the musical Chicago directed by Michael Hurst is one they could not turn down. Rebecca Fox talks to some of the cast and crew on opening night.
With a cup of tea in hand, her hair slicked down from her wig, Jackie Clarke sinks into the couch with a sigh and rubs her feet.
She has just come from the final dress rehearsal for Chicago the musical, a high-intensity production, which sees her strut the stage baton in hand, wearing leather and fishnets, belting out tunes such as When You Are Good to Mama .
"You know glamour is a lot of work."
It is a dream role for Clarke — known for her work with the Lady Killers, solo show "Jackie goes prima diva" and stints in musicals ( Mamma Mia! , Shirley Valentine ) — who had given up on the thought of ever getting to perform in popular musical Chicago — the longest-running musical revival in Broadway history and the second-longest running show of all time after Phantom of the Opera .
"Honestly, I've spent my whole life wanting to be in it. I thought I would never be, because it's a dancer's show and I'm not a dancer."
She admits, now looking back, she probably could have played the lead roles of Roxy or Velma when she was younger as she can move but just did not have the confidence to try.
"Now I've got old lady bravery, you know, the ability to go 'I can do anything'."
So the role of Mama Morton is a gift she has grabbed with both hands even if the costume is so tight — and yes, they are her boobs — she cannot sit down and her feet ache from the high-heeled boots.
"I'm just thrilled to be doing it. I really love the Mama look we've developed."
It has the added attraction of being a slightly different character to those she normally plays, as it is darker and more calculating.
"She abuses her power a lot. It's interesting to play. I generally go for the crack and the light but I have to actually lean into the darkness, which is not something that I'm used to doing but I'm actually enjoying it — a little too much."
Mama Morton's vocal range is also a lot lower than she is used to singing.
"I'm kind of a bit of a screamer, a belter, so technically it's a real good exercise for me. That's why I'm still in the business, because I'm still finding things that keep me on my toes."
With a cast of 17 choreographed by Shona McCullagh, Chicago also has a different vibe to her solo shows or her work in musical groups The Lady Killers or When the Cats been Spayed.
"My natural habitat is being surrounded by other women and creating our own little slumber party vibe, for want of a better word. The vibe when women are in a room together, unfiltered, the humour and the energy that comes from that, I'm addicted to. I love it."
Although there are some similarities with Chicago and she is enjoying doing a big-cast show, especially seeing the younger generation of performers come through and being really "fierce".
"This show has a real female energy to it — they just happen to be murderers."
But there are foils to that female energy in the slick lawyer Billy Flynn, played by Joel Tobeck, in his first musical in 20 years.
Tobeck, a 35-year veteran of stage and screen in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, says finding that side of himself after so long has been challenging but the attraction of the show and working with director Michael Hurst was too great to turn down.
"But I've got there with some great support from everyone else. And the songs, you know, there's some notes in there that I wouldn't usually sing, they're quite high, but I've had to really work at getting them. Just finding the singing muscle again, you know?"
Having most recently been working in television on shows such as Brokenwood Mysteries and Spartacus , he says it has also taken work to find his "theatre voice and body" again and play to a large audience rather than just a camera.
"No matter how long between theatre shows, it's always there to be reinvigorated again. I've had to be reminded of what I should and shouldn't do, you know, because you need to just be sort of triggered into that world again."
But he is enjoying the character who is a bit of a charlatan, pretty suave and a fast talker and is looking forward to touring with the show.
"It'll be fun to take it on the road and get some different eyes on it."
Clarke also knows these sort of opportunities in New Zealand of a fully professional production and one that is going to tour is very rare these days.
"I'm fist-pumping with joy that they're doing it. We have amazing creativity in this country and we have a really unique approach to things so its not cookie-cutter theatre — we've put our own spin on the show. Every number is a banger, you can't believe all of these songs are in this one show."
It is also just as relevant now as it was when it was first written in the 1970s, she says.
Musical director Paul Barrett agrees. Another veteran of theatre and music, Barrett has nothing but praise for the score of Chicago , written by John Kander and Fred Ebb.
"The same people who wrote Cabaret , and they obviously had a proclivity for writing pastiches, in the case of Cabaret , the early 30s in Berlin, and in the case of Chicago , the mid-20s in America, and they've just captured that sound of the jazz age ... there's not a dull number in the show. That's one of the reasons it's endured."
The show, which is based on the true stories of two women facing murder trials and explores the way the media can turn murderers into celebrities, is 50 years old this year.
Barrett is physically on stage for the show, as the first keyboard player, as well as conducting the 12-piece band, which in Dunedin will include 10 members of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra. All performers are also on stage during the performance.
"We're doing the version where the first keyboard is also the conductor, so I have to somehow combine the two, and I haven't done that for years and years, it's really tricky. It takes enormous concentration because I've got to be listening to the stage, I'm in charge of my band, I've got to bring them in on cue, but I've also got to play my own part, and there are very specific timings."
It is Barrett's second experience of Chicago having subbed in for a keyboard player in a 2001 version of the show so he knew what he was in for.
"That's the challenge of the show for me and it's wonderful music."
Chicago 's producer Ben McDonald, who grew up in Gore, says it is important to support New Zealand's professional cast and crew in these times.
"It's great to be able to bring all these clever people together to make a piece of art." To see:
Chicago , Regent Theatre, August 29-30.