Review: CHICAGO at Capital One Hall

Here at Capital One Hall, CHICAGO is painting the town. A spectacle to behold, the performance lights up Tysons in a hazy allure of Fosse high kicks and slow-rolling hips.

Amidst the glitz and glamor of the roaring ‘20s, Roxie Hart (Ellie Roddy) guns down her extramarital lover, Fred Casely (Brad Weatherford), as he is breaking up with her. While at the Cook County Jail, Roxie’s flashy and sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn (Connor Sullivan) concocts a whirlwind tale of salacious crime. Roxie captures the headlines as her open-and-shut case becomes front page news and she looks to transform her fifteen minutes of fame into a song and dance career. However, vaudeville performer and fellow cellmate Velma Kelly (Taylor Lane) despises Roxie stealing the spotlight and swears not to be outclassed.

Ellie Roddy as Roxie Hart is acrobatic out the gate in “Funny Honey” and Roddy’s fine-tuned song and dance ability are evident in “Roxie” and “Me and My Baby.” Taylor Lane as Velma Kelly matches this energy and showcases Lane’s remarkable talent and technique most visibly in “All that Jazz” and “I Can’t Do It Alone.” Roddy and Lane are a perfect double act in a musical that relies on strong performances from both figures.

Illeana “illy” Kirven as Matron “Mama” Morton has a voice that fills the stage in “When You’re Good to Mama,” though she particularly shines in “Class.” Connor Sullivan as Billy Flynn fills the role well as an actor and singer and captivates and guides both jury and audience in a slinking, storytelling manner. Andrew Metzger as Amos Hart acts his part well and Metzger’s rendition of “Mr. Cellophane” is a crowd favorite. D. Fillinger as Mary Sunshine has such tremendous range as evident in Fillinger’s numbers in Act 1 versus the big reveal.

The two biggest hits from CHICAGO, “All that Jazz” and “We Both Reached for the Gun,” both deliver. Performers Taylor Lane (Velma), Ellie Roddy (Roxie), and Connor Sullivan (Billy) especially live up to the challenging singing and movements that are demanded of them. Of course, they are backed up with a cast of strong singers and strong dancers.

Notably, instead of having the orchestra in the pit, the band is placed on stage. This makes perfect sense considering the central role of jazz to the musical. In fact, the “Entr’acte” of Act 2 which exclusively features the band, is eyebrow-raisingly good. However, placing the band on the stage can make some singing harder to hear which is a trade-off, but not one that detracts from the show.

Ultimately, the North American tour of CHICAGO packs a lot in and blasts through 22 lively musical numbers in 150 minutes. It is a high intensity tour of sultry jazz singing and seductive dance that doesn’t let narrative details get in the way of a good time.

Capping off Capital One Hall’s Broadway in Tysons fourth season, CHICAGO is here for this weekend only as it moves on to Roanoke and later Baltimore. As for Capital One Hall, Broadway in Tysons will go on for a fifth season beginning this fall.

A rollicking good time, CHICAGO has a run time of 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission.

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