Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...But it's mostly a pleasure to take one more trip to the Cook County Jail and witness the results of what happened when a prescient Chicago Tribune reporter named Maurine Dallas Watkins saw the show-business possibilities of the tale-spinning Chicagoans on her beat. This production, which features some stellar ensemble work, deserves a good welcome home, although there also is something about seeing veteran actors and Bob Fosse dancers like these do “Chicago” in a half-empty theater, where you can taste their disdain for cheap, temporary celebrity with all of its painfully tangible rewards."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...More than anything, this is a story told in dance — a Roaring 1920s-style jazz ballet in which everything from the tawdry moves of burlesque, to the inflated grandeur of the Follies, is used to express character, relationships, mood and plot. The dancers’ legs and hips, and their overall use of body language, is of the essence here. Add a few chairs, a couple of ladders hinged to the stage wings, and a narrow staircase that leads through the ranks of the sensationally brassy onstage band led by Eric Knight Barnes, and you’ve got a floor show that takes a true story (initially captured by Chicago reporter and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins) and turns it into a riveting and perfectly cynical tale of love, opportunism and justice gone amok."
Chicago Stage Review - Highly Recommended
"...John O’Hurley (of TV’s Seinfeld, Dancing with the Stars and Family Feud fame) adds more than celebrity to the show. He lends his uniquely evocative voice to the part of smarmy layer Billy Flynn. For a Dancing with the Stars alum, his hoofing is noticeably lackluster but he more than makes up for it with charm and presence."
Chicago Theatre Addict - Recommended
"...Chicago is simply a solid show. It’s quick, funny, topical, cynical, smart, and, most importantly, sexy. It may have been ahead of it’s time when it premiered on Broadway for a short run in 1975 (and a little-known show named A Chorus Line may have usurped its potential audience), but today? The show’s themes are completely in synch with our sensibilities: instant celebrity, sensationalism, murder, greed, corruption, violence, etc."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...If you want to see an expert Broadway musical, this production of Chicago sure qualifies. If you’ve never seen Chicago and/or you’ve only seen the film, then do get to the Oriental Theatre to witness the “real” Chicago. There is nothing like a Bob Fosse dance show. Chicago is Fosse’s best. It is thrilling and so polished. Kudos to Broadway In Chicago for bringing back this classic if only for a week."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...John O’ Hurley’s presence greatly shines as Billy Flynn, his comedic timing is excellent and the character itself is just a fun role to play. The vixens Roxie and Velma are brought to near perfection by Tracy Shayne and Terra C. MacLeod, their vaudeville dancing and elegant charm won this critic over during the first number. After all these years the show has been running, and after the large amount of success with the film adaption, I strongly feel that you cannot go wrong with “Chicago”. Take haste however, you only have a week to catch it."
Let's Play at ChicagoNow - Highly Recommended
"...
Having seen only the movie, I can say without hesitation the live performance is incomparable! CHICAGO the Musical is a dancing-in-your-seat-humming-in-your-head fantastical experience! 'And that's Good, isn't it? Grand, isn't it? Great, isn't it? Swell, isn't it? Fun, isn't it? But nothing stays'.... So get a ticket soon!"
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The music in this show is pure Kander and Ebb- “All That Jazz”, “Cell Block Tango”, “When You’re Good To Mama” ( delightfully done by Roz Ryan),”Me And My Baby”, “Mister Cellophane” ( Orbach truly is this character), “Class” and of course the big “Razzle Dazzle” ( a showstopper) as well as many others including the final song fr Roxie and Velma “Hot Honey Rag” where the canes and hats , signatures of Fosse are used to bring the crowd to a new high. As I said earlier, this is a special show, one that continues to reach people ( many who have seen it numerous times and will again) and keeps the memory of Bob Fosse alive!"
Chicago Theater Beat - Highly Recommended
"...Told as vaudeville (with the 20 songs depicting "acts of desperation"), Chicago moves a lot faster than justice. Set inside gold frames (the inner one enclosing the first-rate band, the outer the in-your-face stage action), the hit-and-run scenes shake and shimmy. Stripped of sets (who needs a chandelier or helicopter with songs like these?), director Walter Bobbie focuses on the song-and-dance glories that Bob Fosse bequeathed to Ebb’s infectious score and that Anne Reinking lovingly reconstructs."
