Review: CHICAGO at The Contemporary

City Theatre Company’s CHICAGO was met with a warm audience response on opening night—and deservedly so. Now celebrating its 32nd year, CTC has long occupied a vital place in Delaware’s theatrical landscape, with current Artistic Director Kerri Kristine McElrone integral to the company since its inception.

Aisle Say has followed CTC from its earliest years in Opera Delaware’s black box, where ingenuity compensated for limited space. Productions such as Bat Boy: The Musical and Hedwig and the Angry Inch firmly established the company as Delaware’s off-Broadway: adventurous, resourceful, and ambitious.

Musically, CHICAGO was the evening’s greatest success. Under Music Director Joe Trainor, the orchestra delivered a vibrant, propulsive performance that honored the score’s jazz-inflected bite. Christopher Ertelt (piano), Josh Dowiak (bass), Jim Olson (trombone), Gary Oberparleiter (trumpet), Kanako Neale (drums/percussion), Virginia Cheung (violin), and Nate Peterson (reeds) played with precision and swagger. From the overture forward, the audience knew the music would carry the night—and it did.

CHICAGO is iconic, and staging it in a small, confining space is inherently risky. This production embraced that risk, but not without notable shortcomings.

Choreography from classic shows often becomes derivative, and Fosse is no exception. Yet Fosse choreography is not decorative—it defines the emotional and psychological landscape of the piece. His vocabulary—turned-in knees, articulated hands, rolled shoulders, stylized stillness—turns movement into character. A tilt of the hat signals seduction; a collapsed spine reveals vulnerability. Ensembles function not as decoration, but as embodiments of desire, pressure, and voyeurism.

Accomplished choreographers adapt. Regional productions adapt. Here, that adaptation was largely absent. CTC’s production numbers lacked the absolute precision, unified style, and dangerous specificity Fosse demands. There was little successful imitation or interpretation, and the ensemble did not consistently execute the necessary clarity of attack or musical phrasing. Simply put, the orchestra’s excellence outpaced the movement onstage.

There were, however, standout performances. Mary Sunshine—portrayed by Jolene Cuisine (a/k/a Zach Langrehr), the self-described “present drag bear from Delaware”—stopped the show with “A Little Bit of Good.” The countertenor vocal quality and operatic control were thrilling, perfectly heightening the role’s deliberate irony.

As Amos Hart, Daryan Borys delivered the production’s most emotionally grounded moment. His “Mister Cellophane” was heartfelt, specific, and deeply human, with acting choices that elevated the song beyond pathos into quiet devastation.

Kerri Kristine McElrone’s Velma and Tonya Baynes’s Mama Morton blended beautifully in a harmonized “Nowadays,” offering a glimpse of the show’s intended polish and balance.

CHICAGO remains a tightly constructed vaudeville revue—each number advancing character, theme, and Fosse’s cynical view of fame and justice. While City Theatre Company’s production delivered musical excellence and individual highlights, it ultimately fell short of the choreographic rigor the material demands.

Photography by Joe Del Tufo

CHICAGO runs December 12-20