There was an amazingly elegant banquet/reception at Carthage tonight, honoring the seniors who are about to graduate. It’s incredibly fun to indulge in all of the splendid delicacies, spend time with the graduates and everyone else in the Carthage family, and just celebrate after all of the hard work that has been a part of the school year now at last completed. But it wasn’t in the cards for me this time around- because instead I had to grab a quick supper at Qdoba and then run up to the Racine Theater Guild, take my place in the center stage bandstand, and play piano for tonight’s RTG performance of the musical “Chicago.” And for as sad as I was to miss out on all of the fun going on at Carthage tonight, my regret lasted about two seconds into tonight’s performance of “Chicago.” At that point, the amazing fun of making music with these incredible musicians took me over completely and there was no looking back.
Part of the delight was that this is such a wonderful show- so unique and imaginative, so out-of-the-box, and still so fresh even after all these years. (It originally opened in 1975.) And it’s one of those shows to which singers are irresistibly drawn, which is why we were overrun with all kinds of gifted people who turned out for auditions…. which made casting this show incredibly challenging/easy, if you know what I mean. But on the other hand, how fabulous it felt to be able to assemble a cast with not a single weak link. Not one.
It’s also a show that is rather worldly, with all kinds of dark and racy themes and more than a little bit of salty language (to put it mildly)…. but somehow the sweet senior citizens (and the not-so-sweet senior citizens, as well) who have attended the show thus far don’t seem to mind any of that a bit. They know the kind of rough hewn characters who populate this cast- and they know how those kind of people act and talk- and somehow that makes it a little easier to take. And as I told someone just tonight, I think “Chicago” provides a relatively safe opportunity for otherwise well-behaved persons indulge in the wild side, at least for a few minutes. For a lot of folks in the audience, attending “Chicago” is the raciest thing they’ll do all year. Heck, playing “Chicago” is probably the raciest thing that I’ll do all year! By far. And of course, the cast is loaded with incredibly nice people…. fine, upstanding citizens…. who get to play just the opposite in this show. How fun is that?!?!
One reason “Chicago” is such a gratifying success for the cast, crew and band – plus stage director Doug Instenes and choreographer Kara Ernst – is that this has not exactly been a walk through the park. “Chicago” is a complicated show and demanding on many levels, and people have had to hang in there through exhaustion and frustration. And while it was a thrilling prospect to do the show with a 12-piece band, that also added another layer of complexity to the mix that made things a little scary as we approached opening night, even with as capable a conductor as Doug Johnson on the podium. And on top of that was the saga of the two different electric pianos that refused to work properly, which eventually prompted us at the last minute to use the theater guild’s upright piano instead. (The process of hauling that piano up ten steps into the top level of the bandstand was a little more fun than any of us bargained for.) Yes, nothing about “Chicago” has been easy. . . but that’s made the pleasure of its success just that much richer and sweeter – and I suspect that none of us who have been part of this production will ever forget it.
* Thanks to the huge interest in tickets, a fourth weekend of performances has been added. That’s June 1st (Friday night) and 2nd (Saturday afternoon and night.) Call 633-4218 to get tickets.