Has anyone seen any non replica productions of Chicago - maybe a community/non professional production?
How did they stage it?
The Broadway revival production is so iconic in its style that I am struggling to imagine it done differently. Even high school productions on YouTube are done in a similar minimal/black stockings/band on stage kinda way. I'm intrigued to know if there's a very different way to present this show.
There was a production that played the drury lane theatre in the Chicago area a few years back and I believe it got favorable reviews.
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The Fulton Theater did one in 2018 I believe. Jessica Lee Goldyn and Heather Parcells were Roxie & Velma.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
Theatre Latte Da did an awesome production last fall in Minneapolis. It was an interesting blend of the movie and the original Fosse staging. They used a speakeasy instead of vaudeville space. It was clever and Roxie was outstanding!
^^ I just looked up some further details about that production out of curiosity. Clearly they were given a fair bit of freedom to do something different:
To quote the Google Translate version of the above review: "In a spoken intro, [director Ulrich] Wiggers weaves the framework for the plot: the prisons have been privatized and the stories of the inmates offer ideal entertainment potential for the sensational crowd at home in front of the TV, on the tablet or on the smartphone, which then decides interactively about the fate of the inmates."
The Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario is presenting Chicago this summer in a non-replica production. Donna Feore is directing and cheorographing. She did a non-replica production of A Chorus Line and West Side Story at the festival in the past. It's interesting to note that in a press release (which I remember reading, and now can't find) it mentioned that Barry Weissler had given permission for the non-replica production...I had no idea he held any of those rights.
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