Class

    As some of you may know, I am doing a production of CHICAGO at Performance Riverside. Being a dramaturg at heart, I relish in the research of the script. I like to read about the people who wrote it, and why, and everything about the history of the production. Not only is this play based on actual events, which leads to rich research by itself, the story of how the musical version came to be is interesting.

  Gwen Verdon found the original play, she brought it to her husband Bob Fosse, she told him that this would make a great musical. Out of guilt, he pursued the project, as he felt that he owed it to Gwen. Their relationship was complicated and though Bob had many other girlfriends, they shared a daughter and they never divorced. They worked professionally together and lived apart. Bob took the play to Kander and Ebb and they collaborated on the script. Bob had also just recovered from a heart attack, and surgery and was in a deep depression. The musical numbers explore the world he knew best; vaudeville. Having played the vaudeville circuit himself,  as a teenager , he had a great love and respect for this genre which is also reflected in some of his other films.

Trying to pinpoint a theme to this show?? There are so many. Jazz (and its many meanings), Greed (and corruption), the criminal (who we make into a celebrity) and how all that stuff can backfire or not. Is it fair? no. But it happens. It's real. It doesn't hide anything.  That's why this show is so in your face.

The theme may be up for grabs, but I feel like I have a handle on how the writers felt when they were writing. The song in the second act; Class, sums it all up for me. To me, although its crass and funny, its the saddest song in the show. It gives the audience a chance to think about what they have been witnessing, both on the stage and in real life. It's a sad state of affairs sometimes. It's the place in the script where I think the writers are kinda knocking you over the head like, holding up a mirror to us. We all do it. People have lost so much.  Sometimes being good just doesn't pay off in this world. Innocence and devotion are optional. What happened?

We worked on the amazing set this week. Lets just say, I've never been up so high in the air, it's kinda exhilarating. Come and see the show!!