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The three "Chicagos"

May 30, 2006

I’ve seen “Chicago” three times now. And while the first two were fine, I really didn’t like the last one in London.

First was of course the movie. Then there was a local open-air production in Tallinn a couple of years ago. Despite some rain, the show was great. And now I went to see it in London, hoping to see it whip the crackers out of the previous one.

Well, it didn’t. It was sort of average. I’m not sure why I didn’t like it. It wasn’t really bad, either, and there was a lot of great individual work. No one sang off-key or anything like that. But the whole thing just didn’t click into one big whole.

And it certainly wasn’t because of the retards playing with their mobiles around me in Act II. Is it really so goddamn difficult to turn off your mobile for two hours? You’re not that important. Really, you’re not. I know I’m not. No one goddamn needs you during those two hours. And if they do, they can wait.

So yeah, the show… for a moment in the beginning, I almost thought the show was unplugged, which would have been a great new experience and the Cambridge theatre was certainly small enough to make that feasible. But it was still plugged, at least in some spots, or a mix of plugged and unplugged, or I dunno. (How did they do it in the old days without electricity???)

Maybe it’s because I’m used to big shows and choreography, and this really wasn’t one. First, most of the stage was taken up by the orchestra stand, so that left only limited space for the performers to jump around. The stage and show they had built in Estonia for open air was truly grand, with multiple levels and lots of open space. Here it was very constrained.