UMaine theater to stage razzle-dazzle ‘Chicago’

ORONO – The University of Maine School of Performing Arts’ music and theater departments are collaborating to bring the sensational vaudevillian razzle-dazzle musical “Chicago” to Hauck Auditorium this month.

A cast of 19 characters with an equal number of stage hands and technicians have been at work since October, polishing their singing and dancing, and memorizing lines for the musical.

The show opens at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, at Hauck Auditorium on the Orono campus and runs Feb. 10-12 and 17-19, with 2 p.m. Sunday matinees on Feb. 13 and 20. Admission is $10.

Director Tom Mikotowicz, associate professor of theater, said the popular show, successfully revived several times since it was written in 1926 – including as an award-winning movie in 2002 starring Richard Gere, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones – will delight and dazzle the audience.

Written first as a play set in the roaring ’20s, “Chicago” was made into a Broadway musical by Bob Fosse in 1975. The story focuses on two murderesses on death row who vie for the spotlight and the headlines, hoping the publicity will catapult them to fame, freedom and successful stage careers.

It also is about “how the justice system can be overhauled by the media,” Mikotowicz said.

“It’s a story that’s ahead of its time and is still as pertinent today as it was in the 1920s because it focuses on the sensational trials of the century,” said Mikotowicz. “In ‘Chicago,’ themes of greed, corruption and violence are all handled in a very musical, humorous way. There are lots of great songs and great dramatics.”

The story is framed around Velma Kelley, played by Janis Greim, a speech-language pathology major from Auburn, and Roxie Hart, played by theater major Lisa Knowlton of Orono.

Velma is Chicago’s top nightclub star until she guns down her cheating husband. By playing to the news media, a slick lawyer, Billy Flynn, played by Dominick Varney of Winterport, sensationalizes the women’s cases in an attempt to use public sympathy as a strategy to win freedom.

Some of the music for “Chicago” includes “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango,” “Razzle-Dazzle” and “My Own Best Friend.”

Mikotowicz said cast members and others in a fall dance class used dance numbers from the musical both as course material and to prepare students who intended to audition for parts in the 2005 production.

Set designer for “Chicago” is Chez Cherry, a professional scenic designer working again with the School of Performing Arts, and Matthew Guminski, a Massachusetts lighting designer also returning to UMaine for the production.

Student Devon Medeiros of Richmond is sound designer, and student Kristin Dearborn of West Gardiner is stage manager.

Other members of the cast include Brianne Beck, a UMaine Spanish instructor from Hampden and students Hans-Stefan Ducharme, Kennebunk; Derek Francis, Eddington; Patrick M. Gleason, Bayonne, N.J.; Alicia Hurley, East Machias; Dale Knapp, Beddington; Rachel Krautkremer, Bangor; Sheridon Littlefield, Freeport; Michelle Neveux, West Sumner; Toby Paradis, Old Town; Evan Porchetta, Knox; Andrew Rowell, Auburn; Starcha Schiller, Stillwater; Josh Snowden, Old Town; Katelyn White, Ogunquit; and Greg Young, Gouldsboro.