Give 'em the old razzle dazzle...

I know this isn't quite Vaudeville times, but during all this conversation I couldn't help but think about Chicago. You know, in discussing the show business of Vaudeville acts and talking about the city itself, I can't help but bring it up. Not to mention it runs with the theme of showtunes that Beth and I have been discussing.

In case you don't know Chicago , it's about a woman named Roxie Hart. She murders her lover when she finds him in bed with another woman. The story is about her attempts to espcape the death penalty while becoming a minor starlett in the hubub of her trial. Her lawyer pulls out all the stops to make her look like the most innocent woman alive when we al know the truth. Through the play we see her bamboozle her husband, push another woman, Velma Kelly, out of the jailbird spotlight, and rise to the top of the Chicago scene. The song below is "All that Jazz" is the show's oppening number, combining dancing, adultery, and death, which all combine to create quite a spicy exposition.

 

While this is all towards the downfall of the vaudevillian stage, we see its remnants. Ragtime music has morphed into Jazz music, and that emphasis on the off beat has become a lack of emphasis at all, and a free flowing sort of music that changes every night. As far as performances go, there's still singing and dancing. It's appealing to mass audiences, but in a much different manner now. These dancers are hot, steamy, and sultry. No animal acts here; when Velma's describing her choreography there aren't any double joints, but "splits" and "spread eagles". The stereotypical and dry humor has morphed into raunchiness that everyone guiltilly sniggers at. The dirtiness that came along with the tenements, and the dichotomy in Chicago between the immigrant population and the heightiness of the world fair created the perfect storm for a time full of "jazz and liquor". We've reached the jazz age, where vaudevillian, golden chaos has morphed into dirty dancing and sauntry music.

I'm in love with the music in this show, but really just the music standing on its own. The movie didn't really move me plot wise. Quite frankly I would be happy seeing the show simply as a cabaret series. I saw a high school production at an Illinois Theater Exposition, but that was... lacking. In all departments. Perhaps a Broadway production would be better. In the end, the show does a really good job of catching the inauthenticity of the time; songs like "Razzle Dazzle" emphasize the expectation for flair and shallowness, and "Cell Block Tango" reaches for the depths of the darkness looming in the background of the age. Youtube a few of the songs, you won't be dissapointed.