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April 15, 1997

A Hot Wind Blows In From 'Chicago'

by MARC PEYSER
Newsweek -- Volume 128 Issue 22 Page 81

When Bob Fosse's Chicago opened on Broadway in 1975, the critics called it grotesque, exploitative and gloomy. No wonder it looks so smashing today. A raunchy musical about women who kill their men and manipulate the media to get out of jail was ahead of its time 21 years ago. But in the post-O.J. era, a $3 million revival that boils over with cynical songs (by Kander and Ebb), heat-seeking dances and age-defying stars re- turns to Broadway at just the right moment.

Ann Reinking (``Dancin' '') and Bebe Neuwirth (``Cheers'') play Roxie and Velma, two vixens who meet in a '20s Chicago jail. Some convicts sing like canaries; Reinking and Neuwirth dance--irresistibly. But it's Reinking's choreography that steals the show. She's taken Fosse's (she was his girlfriend) vocabulary of angled limbs, pulsating pelvises and writhing bodies and refashioned them into a string of hormonal showstoppers. The rest of the show is spare: one set, black costumes (what there is of them). But in classic Fosse fashion, every spotlight and bent pinkie makes an impression, thanks to Walter Bobbie's pinpoint direction. Even Joel Grey's small part as Roxie's nerdy husband scores big, especially in a number where he simply sways his body and wiggles his white-gloved hands. Like the rest of ``Chicago,'' it looks like magic.

PHOTO (COLOR): Dance fevers: Reinking