Hi,

I'm going to see Chicago in late may, I've never seen the production before, only the film. Is the current production decent, and what is the theatre like? I've booked stall seats so I hope it's okay.

Thanks

I can't say I've seen the current cast but I did see the West End version last summer for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had seats right at the side of Row C in the stalls (booked through last minute.com at half price) and they were brilliant seats. I loved the show and how minimalistic it is.

Have you seen many shows before? It's very different to a lot of WE musicals just because of the design of it. The songs are incrdible, and there is fantastic chemistry between the onstage band and the dancers. i loved the fact that the dancers barely ever leave the stage, they just sit at the side.

I'm sure you'll love it! What row are your seats?

Current Roxie Aoife Mulholland seems to divide opinion a little, but I think she's great in the role and will still be with the show when you see it. Tiffany Graves and Gina Murray are also both very strong, and I think they will still be around in late May too. I didn't think Ian Kelsey was anything special as Billy, but was decent nonetheless, and I've not seen David Ganly the current Amos yet.

The theatre generally has quite good sightlines I think, you shouldn't have too much trouble anywhere in the stalls. The production on a whole is very strong, with an excellent cast it's just superb, with a more lacklustre one the evening can sink a bit, but that shouldn't be a worry with the current batch!

Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone know when the next Chicago cast change was?

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for taking so long to answer!
We are sat in row Q - should be a good night!

They have recently completed auditions for the new cast and they will take over in June.

Tiff Graves left the production two weeks ago and I believe Rachel Pressland is the current Velma

Gary Wilmot is joining the touring cast in June as Billy Flynn which I think will be amazing.

Do you happen to know who Roxie Hart will be?

I've seen the stage show 5 times so far, twice in London (first at the Adelphi and then at the Cambridge) and 3 times on tour. I absolutely love it (100 times better than the crap movie version). I saw nearly all of the original London cast (except Ute Lemper and Henry Goodman) and Ruthie Henshall is still the definitive Roxie for me and Meg Johnson is the best Mama Morton I've heard. I'm planning on going to see it again when it comes to Glasgow later in the year.

I really can't wait to see this show.

Yes, but I am not allowed to say!

Well could you give us a little clue? How old is she and is she well known?

Well you dont even know who Velma is as its Rachel McDowell not Pressland!!,she was never a Velma and left long ago to have a baby.
Aoife Mulholland is Roxie until July 12th.

I got the Rachel bit right!
I was just told Rachel is back.

The new Roxie is not British

It's David Haasselhoff!

Brilliant!
but she's much prettier

I was told they had not cast Roxie Hart but you seem to think that is not so, I am a little puzzled but really I am keen to know if they have. I am hoping to go to Chicargo but would love to know who Roxie is going to be. Also just wondering have they cast Velma, just very curious!

Aoife is staying as Roxy till 12July. Leigh Zimmerman as Velma to join Springer gang on June 1st

Just saw the show,what a mess!

Rachel McDowell cant do the kicks properly and Aoife Mulholland cant do anything properly!

Ian Kelsey struggles to remember his lines and giggles through most of the show with the unprofessional ensemble who seem amused at his hopelessness!

C'mon Guys- people have paid a lot to see this shambles!

This show can be so amazing - but as it is such a performance show and not easily covered up with flashy production it can also be so bad can't it!

I have to say - the summer ensemble / leads were pretty amazing in this show - I had forgotten how good it could be! Bring back Anna Jane Casey and Sarah Soetart!!

Nathan Kiley as Mary Sunshine is just fabulous.

The current cast is incredible. Rachel McDowall is the best velma i've ever seen, and I've seen all the ones which have performed at the Cambridge. . .

To say that she can't do the kicks is also ridiculous. She has an injury at the moment which is why in "I Can't Do It Alone" she does two kicks not as high as usual.

Ms McDowall has in her runs as Velma, to date never missed a single show, so that also proves her stamina. . .

I have seen the show with Ian Kelsey several times and have never seen him behave like that. He's always been professional when I've seen him and had no problem remembering his lines.

The current Mary Sunshine in my opinion is one of the worst ever.
But it seems a nerve has been pricked and people connected to the show have been posting as I dont class the last few posts as normal punter posts!

Come off it. Why should a highly professional actor who as been playing the role for months, sudenly forget his lines?

Come off what, know it all!!!
Ian Kelsey has fluffed his lines since the day he started as Billy,its nothing serious but ask the man himself and I am sure he will admit it!

Because memory occasionally lets you down at inopportune moments. I've seen quite a few people forget their lines and try to improvise their way through, with varying degrees of success.

Fine I accept your point.

But why resort to personal slanging

Just seen the show and have to disagreewith Jay. Thought Rachel McDowell was fantastic and on a par with AJ. In fact she was sexier. Thats what is good about Chicago everyone brings in something different. Shame this cast is changing they are brilliant.
One of this current cast is so strong I have never actually noticed it before.

Any news on the new Roxie Hart?

Excuse me, I posted the post you quote and I live in Liverpool and have no connection whatsoever to the show other than I've seen it a few times. Just because a post doesn't agree with you, doesn't make it not "a normal punter post." You're not the only punter entitled to voice an opinion on here and that was mine on Ian Kelsey's performance.

To clarify - my post above refers to this previous post of mine:

QUOTE(guest @ May 4 2009, 03:54 PM)
I have seen the show with Ian Kelsey several times and have never seen him behave like that. He's always been professional when I've seen him and had no problem remembering his lines.


That's my opinion and I don't know why you take the insulting opinion that only a member of the cast could post soemthing like that.
Also, occasionally fluffing a line is not the same as giggling througout a performance, acting unprofessionally and being sneered at by fellow cast members.
And I've no problem in adding my name
Julie

I really want to see this show so much, I hope I can get to see it in the Summer.

I do apologise , but your posts do wind me up sometimes,you always seem to know stuff and then tease and say oh I cant tell you but I know who the next Roxie is blah blah blah !cant see why you can be bothered to do so,either say its ....... or dont post at all!

They say that membership has it's priviledges. Being a member of WOS would give you access to my profile, which would explain why I have so many contacts in the WestEnd.

But being asked not to repeat a casting is something I honour, and besides a little bit of teasing never hurt anyone!

Anyone can make up a profile and if its as accurate as your gossip,your probably a welder from Sunderland!!

You really must have had a poor experience somewhere to think that everyone is that much of a liar.

Hmmm a welder from Sunderland??????????

As far as I read in one of the theatre posting Aofie Mulholland plays the part of Roxie till mid July, when the current production at Cambridge theatre closes. Is the fact that the show is closing not correct, that you are refering to a new Roxie ?

I also cannot agree with this post. I saw the show on 3 occasions in the last months, and its was mostly owing to the fact that Aofie Mulholland is one of the best ever Roxie's to which many critics agree from what I have read. Also Ian Kelsey does a great job, it will be a performance difficult to follow for Jerry Springer from June :-) However I will be along to see how he does :-)

The show is not closing and they have recently held auditions for a new ensemble. Some cast are staying on.

I understand that Jerry Springer will begin his time as Billy Flynn in the USA for a month or so, before transfering to the Cambridge, so hopefully he will have served his apprenticeship in the USA before being let loose on the West End.

Hey, everybody, summer's a-coming! The frosts of winter have disappeared, the blossom is on the trees, the cuckoos are in the fields, and the "Chicago is closing" posts have returned to the Whatsonstage forums.

More cobblers from Red Momma it seems!,Jerry starts at the Cambridge Theatre in 26 days!!

Either Red Momma has kicked someone's puppy, or there's a lot of people swarming around this thread who take it as a personal offence that Chicago is still running. What bizarre (and hilarious) hostility! O_O

So why no rehearsal calls?

No idea,but he starts June 1st according to the box office and all the adverts all over London and a life size image inside the Cambridge,are you saying all that is incorrect?

No
What I am saying is that he is not reheasarsing for the normal three weeks in London but is learning and playing the role elsewhere.
With any new principal coming in you would expect calls, but none have been made.
It is currently touring in the US, so maybe he rehearsed in the role there.

rude, disrespectful and childish. How sad.

Sadly true though!

I have seen Ian Kelsey a couple of times and saw absolutely no problem with him. I quite like the sleezier Billys but Ian's less flamboyant one is (more?) credible - an intimate relationship (literally) with the ensemble seems a requirement not a problem.

The ensemble seemed pretty slick to me - the only problems visible were when it had changed recently and thats just probably an argument for not changing it too often.

If anyone thinks Aoife Mulholland can't do anything properly, they should be watching another show as she is doing exactly what she should be doing by the plot and script - from murder to last cartwheel. The UK show hasn't gone with the, older, older Roxie format or attempted to make the show into Prisoner Cell Block H or the film variant . Young Roxie isn't Velma, she's not the more experienced performer or the worldlywise one or the most forceful one nor, given she's ended up with Amos, a massive sex bomb. She's ditzy , fairly but not initially stunningly sexy, and pretty - but she's also bad rather than totally loveable - her murder is down at the psychopathic end of the reasons why all the girls killed. That complexity may not be what you expected to see, but its how the story is written. She is on a learning curve that requires her to match Velma's drive by the end of act 1 and Velma's performance skill by the end - which she does. There's not that many major variations on how you could play a younger Roxie - madder Roxie would disturb, badder Roxie wouldn't deserve sympathy, stronger Roxie, much nicer Roxie or even much funnier Roxie wouldn't match the plot. Suzanne Shaw worked for me as a more likeable Roxie but even there there's the doubt whether her Roxie was just a better psychopath taking more people in. I have seen Aoife do Roxie's journey three times and she's always pulled off the complexity of Roxie brilliantly each time - she's even a good enough actress to slightly change the balance between Roxie the bad, the sad, the ditzy, the good and the comic between shows. I havn't seen anyone do a younger Roxie better.

Havn't seen the show yet with Rachel in it so can't comment - except to note how good Anna-Jane Casey and Tiffany Graves were and the implausibility that they would follow ultra high kicking Tiffany with someone who couldn't kick.


if anything I would make the opposite comment overall - given they have a great Roxie and some great recent Velma's it would be nice if they would actually keep them longer so we would know who we were getting. By all means change the Billys for Jerrys and have guest Amoses (is Justin lee Collins coming back? ) but keep what works in the main roles.

Just out of interest DJP, as you seem to have a fantastic knowledge of the show and its characters, did you ever see it with Josefina Gabrielle playing Roxie? In my opinion she is far and away the best Roxie (although there are a few that I haven't seen) and Amra-Faye Wright was by far the best Velma. Both together was a dream team in my opinion! I also thought Suzanne Shaw did a very credible job.