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When I was last in New York City, something hugely unexpected happened to me. I did something I wasn't sure I was ever going to do again in my lifetime. I walked to the Ambassador Theatre and I bought tickets to go and see Chicago. And that's not the surprising part. The surprising part is that hours before a once in a decade snowstorm arrived in New York, I saw Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre and it was great in ways that I did not know Chicago could ever be again, prompting me to ask such questions as how exactly is this happening? Is this the apocalypse? What is going on? Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre. I am a critic and content creator here on social media and earlier this month. Not earlier this month, I have no idea when you're hearing this. Back in January of this year, I travelled to New York in order to speak at BroadwayCon. I was only there for a couple of days. There weren't that many new shows which had opened. And at this point, thanks to an immense amount of theatre going privilege, I had already seen everything that I wanted to a couple of times. In New York, I had already done a victory lap of all of my favourite shows, leaving me with A slot free on a Saturday night and no idea what to fill it with. And my fiance, Aaron and I eventually came to the decision that the most compelling thing for us at that time was actually to revisit Chicago, something neither of us particularly thought we were ever going to do again. Don't get me wrong, it was the first show that we each ever saw on Broadway, the first Broadway house that we walked into. But I had sort of resolved afterwards that even though they were always going to keep bringing in interesting and unexpected stars into Chicago, I was going to do my best to resist the lure of the stunt casting. Right? Only I eventually changed my mind. And not because of a TV competition show winner or a niche reality star playing one of these iconic roles, but because on this occasion, for a limited time, every principal performer with the company came from a legit musical theatre background. And I sort of took a second glance proverbially at this cast and I thought, you know what, this could be the most, if not prestigious, then just generally capable principal cast Chicago has had in years, perhaps since it opened. And I've got to tell you, not just because third time's the charm, it is the best I have ever seen Chicago on either side of the Atlantic. And in this review that I truly did not anticipate making, I genuinely walked up to the box office and bought tickets in the penultimate row of the rear mezzanine. We're going to dig into why that is. Now as you listen along, if anyone had the chance to see this particular cast of Chicago or any other interesting casts in its multi decade history on Broadway, I would love to hear about it in the comments. And if you would like to hear more reviews from me and more of thoughts about West End and Broadway shows, then make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. For now though, let's talk about the best night I have ever had at Chicago the Musical. So the quick and easy answer about why this was so great is the casting is, you know, bringing in veteran Broadway performers and people who really understand this material tonally and who can really deliver the goods, you know, as opposed to the admittedly fascinating parade of reality TV stars and personalities and singers and sports people and occasionally real life criminals who, you know, they otherwise bring into the Ambassador Theater. But I want to dig into a little more of the nuance about how it changes not just those principal performances, but also the entire show by extension, and the glimpse that it offers into what this production of Chicago initially was, what it once was and on occasion, evidently still can be, because we make fun of Chicago. You know, it's very easy to laugh at the often egregious stunt casting. And I think it gets written off a lot as this show that just exists for tourists that the Broadway community, whatever that may be, doesn't explicitly pay attention to at all times. When I told people, you know, we're thinking of seeing Chicago tomorrow, or, you know, I just got back from the box office, I bought tickets to Chicago, people were like, why? Why have you done that? How hard are times? Do you need help? Is this some sort of a crisis? And am thrilled and delighted that I did because I feel like for the first time I was able to truly appreciate what this production of Chicago was built to be. And if we glance back over the decades to the show's history, it didn't begin as the Chicago that we know today. The aesthetic wasn't quite what it has come to be. Of course, this was a different production. It was a fully staged Broadway production. Bob Fosse at the helm, this brilliant Kander and Ebb score. Fosse and Fred Ebb wrote the book. It orig starred Bob Fosse's muse and frequent collaborator and wife, Gwen Verdon, alongside the icon that was Chita Rivera. Liza Minnelli later joined the show to replace Gwen. It ran between 1975 and 1977 for 900 and something performances. And in many ways you could say that Chicago was a little ahead of its time. You know, the skewering of celebrity culture within the US perhaps was something audiences weren't necessarily ready for, or little bit subversive. According to reviews at the time, it was also arriving on Broadway at the same time as the very revolutionary and hugely successful A Chorus Line. Looking back now, I think we would regard Chicago as a dance show and for any dance show to open alongside A Chorus Line, it was always going to be eclipsed. It would lose out at the Tony Awards and in the years that would follow that production, Chicago, I can only assume, wouldn't really have been regarded as one of the great and iconic Broadway musicals in the way that it now is. It certainly wasn't a staple until. Until it was mounted as a semi staged concert production for what was always intended to be a strictly very limited small run at New York City Centre. As part of their Encores series, which continues to this day. The ethos of this series, their mission statement, if you like, is to revive celebrated and acclaimed scores from yesteryear. This has evolved a little because Encores used to Be about, you know, really bringing out hidden gems, which on occasion they still do. As of right now they are getting ready to put on High Spirits, which is certainly an under produced show, but they sometimes also do like Ragtime and bigger, much more well known things. Anyway, at the time they were getting ready to do Chicago just over 20 years since it had premiered on Broadway. Fosse had passed away about a decade before. And this production, like I said, sleek, stripped back, sparse, very strictly limited run at New York City Centre, was to be directed by Walter Bobby and choreographed in the style of Bob Fosse, dutifully by another of his muses, Ann Reinking, who also was one of the actresses to portray Roxy Hart in the original production. Later in the run she would reprise her performance as Roxy at New York City Centre alongside Bebe Neuwirth. And this story honestly is probably deserving of more exploration because it's really fascinating and ultimately very impactful that something quite unexpected happened when they staged this in concert because it was never built for Broadway in the same way that some encores presentations nowadays perhaps are nowadays. Accidental pun nowadays anyway, commercial theatre producers went to go and see this at New York City Centre, Fran and Barry Weissler. And they made the decision to bring that production to Broadway where it was very successful. It would win at the time more Tony Awards than any musical revival had done previously. It recouped its investment very quickly, as you would expect from the still very stripped down production. They sort of saw it at encores and I guess must have noticed that what this version that was built as a semi staged concert really worked in this format and didn't need anything else adding to it, that it was just kind of a celebration of the songs and the choreography and that was all that it needed to be successful. They went there and must have thought to themselves, you know, this really works. And also this is not going to cost that much and this could continue to really work. I dare say they didn't anticipate, you know, the next almost three decades of success. But like I said, unlike the original production of the show, awards, critical acclaim, box office success, much of which could perhaps be put down to a trio of factors. By this time, years had passed and the show was able to become a little more nostalgic. I couldn't imagine enjoying Chicago as a newly opening musical in the same way that audiences do today as something nostalgic and classic. Of course you could also say that about a lot of other shows that were very popular the first time around. But there's Another key difference, because society had also changed in a big way in the years in between the two runs. Just before Chicago was produced at city centre, the O.J. simpson trial had happened and I think the way that people felt about criminality and celebrity had evolved. The age of reality television and beyond that social media was on the horizon. And suddenly the ideas presented within Chicago and the themes that it satir just weren't so uncomfortable or inexplicable. Finally, it's entirely possible that this aesthetic is really what Chicago always needed and that it pairs very well with the material which combines this sort of dark and sexy quality that is hard to wrestle into creative submission. It works for the show though, because not only is that the aesthetic of the ongoing Broadway revival since seen around the world, often in London's West End and in many other countries, but also it's worth pointing out that this is kind of the aesthetic that the film adaptation in the early 2000s, which was brilliant by the way, retained when it brought the show to the big screen, affording Chicago even more popularity, audience recognition and a really lasting brand. It's not often that the aesthetic of a revival and its identity will eclipse the original production, but nowadays there's that song again. When people think Chicago, they think of this production. All of this to say, when this particular production first arrived on Broadway, it was hugely exciting and it was cast with performers Bebe and Anne, who really understood what it meant to be performing Bob Fosse style choreography. And the show has been so successful that in fact, thanks to this production of Chicago, the world really knows what Bob Fosse choreography looks like. Stylistically, there aren't that many even really successful Broadway choreographers in history whose style is so recognizable. And Ann Reinking and Chicago has an awful lot to do with that. So here's where everything changes a little bit. And I don't wish to sound like I criticizing Chicago for the way that their casting would evolve in the years that would follow. And after Bebe and Anne originated these roles, there were many tremendous actresses who stepped into the shoes of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly as well as the other supporting characters alongside them. But any long running Broadway show has learned the lesson that in order to remain viable and in order to find new audiences consistently over a prolonged period of time, they need to switch up their casting every now and then, then. And they need to find ways to reignite enthusiasm at the box office. And the way that Chicago has been doing that over the past few decades has been what we affectionately refer to as Stunt casting. Yes. This show is no stranger to celebrities. Many of them making their Broadway debuts, some of them stepping foot on a stage for the very first time. Some of them are actors and actresses who haven't necessarily done theatre or musical theatre. Some of them are individuals who have never acted, who aren't even performers. But if they are capable of bringing an audience audience to the Ambassador Theatre, then there is a space for them at Chicago. And there are two immediate thoughts I have about this because I think a the show would probably not still be running if they hadn't at some point started to take this approach. I also think that it's not entirely disconnected from the show's DNA. Like I said before, this was Chicago at a time when society was beginning to change and we were thinking differently about celebrity. The show talks about celebrity. So for stars to go in who are known by the audience, audience, whether they are beloved or in some way slightly notorious, that can be ingenious. It is interesting to me that in recent years they've pulled in a lot of celebrities who are known for their dance talent, perhaps because they have appeared as celebrity contestants on TVs dancing with the Stars, in spite of the fact that specifically the role of Roxy is not actually that demanding in terms of the choreography. Famously, Bebe Neuwirth, I think, broke a hip while she was playing Velma Kelly and said like, well, I'm not going to be able to dance. That could I please do Roxy instead, having broken my hip and with so many celebrity performers having gone into Chicago and with it having become sort of regarded as something of a sideshow on Broadway because of this, you know, some have been really great, some have been unexpectedly great. Some have been not necessarily of typical Broadway caliber. You know, you win some, you lose some. But with all of that and with the reputation that Chicago has gained in the three decades since it arrived as this nostalgic, fantastic, award winning hit, one of the most unusual things for you to see is a cast of a list Broadway talent.
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So I've made it an awfully long way through this without telling you who I actually sold saw in these roles and why I was excited to book tickets. So here is the lineup. I saw Robyn Herder as Velma Kelly alongside Kate Baldwin as Roxie Hart. Robyn Herder, quintessential Velma Kelly because we have really come to know her for these brassy leading lady, old school dame type roles in shows like Smash and Moulin Rouge and a Beautiful Noise in which she gives us with both barrels, classic, classic old school vocals and thrilling dance talent. She is the quintessential Velma Kelly. Kate Baldwin, meanwhile, I did not know had a Roxy heart like this in her because my perception of Kate Baldwin, who I hadn't actually previously had the chance to see on stage, was playing a lot of like Irene Malloy type roles and a lot of sort of more golden age, wistful romantic Broadway musical characters. But she was fantastic and I've seen a lot of Roxie Harts who are probably a little too young to be playing the character. If you think about the originating stars in this role, if you think about when Gwen Verdon played Roxy, if you think about when Ann Reinking played Roxy in the revival, then she's not a sort of an ingenue in her 20s. And a lot of her material, even in the monologue in the song Roxy when she says, I gotta tell you a secret, I'm older than I ever, ever intended to be. So much of it about her desperation and her lifelong dreams of fame and celebrity make more sense when you have a slightly older actress in the role. Not to reduce these performers to their age, but there was this brilliant sense of balance between Kate and Robin that we also lose sometimes. If you have a stunt cast performer in one of those roles and a Broadway veteran alongside them who's been in Chicago for many years previously in these roles I've seen Charlotte d' Amboise and Bianca Marroquin and Amra Faye Wright, who are all veterans of Chicago who have been in the show For a very, very long time. But to see Kate and Robin in comparatively briefer runs. Without as much history in the show made it really thrilling. And their ability to play off of each other. And riff on each other's characterizations. And stand there and belt out these duets like I Am My Own Best Friend. Or was fantastic in ways that I had forgotten the show could really be. And this was another revelation that I had. Because I am incredibly fond of the film adaptation. I think it's one of the best movie adaptations of a stage musical that has ever been made. But every time I go back to a theater to see Chicago. I'm always anticipating those great songs. And there are so many. There is the Cell Block Tango, perhaps the most popular. There is all that jazz. There is I Can't Do It Alone and Roxy and Nowadays and the Hot Honey Rag. And Razzle Dazzle. And there's just so many cellophane. There are great songs in this show. When you're Good to Mama Class. Underappreciated song. We Both Reached for the Gun, for crying out loud. What I forget every time is how many songs were left on the cutting room floor. When they adapted it for the screen. And how many brilliant numbers there are. That you're only going to hear in Chicago. When you're seeing it on stage. Like I Am My own best Friend. Like when Velma takes the stand, like Me and My Baby. There are great numbers in the show. And having the band on stage in this box that's meant to sort of resemble a jury box. And begin to transport us vaguely to trial and land. The whole courthouse thing and the celebrity criminality of it all. I think it is a really great celebration of the score. You are always going to be able to bask in the music when you go and see Chicago. Something that I think had been lacking, though on the first two occasions when I saw the show on Broadway. In comparison to the film. Was the energy of the whole thing. If you see Cell Blocked Hanger on screen. You will remember the ferocity of it and the attack and the. And when I first saw it on Broadway, I was surprised by how underwhelming that number was. And how it was almost played more like a character number. Akin to, you're gonna get a gimmick from Gypsy, but not this time. And I wonder if having Robin Herder in that number. And having brilliant principles throughout the company. Sort of made everyone up their game a little bit. On the other hand, it could also be the fact that, you know, if you're alongside stunt cast performers. You might have to bring down the energy level, you might have to bring down the attack little bit so as to not eclipse them and make it obvious that they're not coming from the same background in terms of training or experience or innate understanding of the Fosse of it all, of the tone of it all. A huge win for Kate Baldwin and Robin Herder was just in their body and in their voices, knowing what this material needed and how to make it work. Kate Baldwin was so funny. Robin Herder was a delicious diva being picked up in that chair and carried off stage kicking her face at every opportunity looking, looking fantastic, both of them. The hair was right, it was playful, it was delicious. They were vindictive towards each other. Every joke landed and critically, they were alive on stage and delighting in this material. Kate Baldwin was adding higher vocal choices at the end of Funny Honey, singing like Funny Honey of Mine sounded with.
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Gorgeous. But they were not alone on stage. And this is, I think what really got me is how fantastic the rest of the company was as well. Because it wasn't just Kate Baldwin who had recently joined the cast, but Tony Award winner Alex Newell had also joined for a lim time in the role of Mama Morton occasionally. And this is speculation from me that may or may not be true, but it is what I've heard. You will see performers possibly around this exact time of year going into Chicago for only a few weeks because they need a certain number of weeks in the calendar year performing on stage in order to maintain their health insurance. And listen, I'm not about to criticize anyone for taking a job for that reason or for hiring them for that reason. And if it means we get like Tony Award winners heading into Chicago as replacement cast members and great performances like this one, then I'm not mad at that. And I have to acknowledge and retract a statement that I had made earlier that day to a friend because I had said about the prospect of seeing Alex Newell as Mama Morton later that night, I feel like I could close my eyes and hear exactly how Alex is going to sing this song, which was complimentary because I enjoy hearing Alex Newell sing anything and everything. I have given Alex Newell a mid show standing ovation for singing independently owned in Shucked. I have been to Alex Newell's comps concert at Cadogan Hall. I cheered when Alex Newell sang the final song at my friend's wedding not that long ago. I have listened to Alex Newell sing Happy Birthday to somebody in a bar. Oh, Batboy. Another one. Fantastic. There is no version of an Alex Newell vocal performance that I am not going to enjoy. I just assumed that I would know exactly how Alex Newell was gonna sing. When you're good to Mama, I was like, I feel like it's gonna be this and then it's gonna be this and that's gonna be be great. But no, Alex Newell surprised me. Alex Newell made playful choices from the off. Playing with depth, playing with character, singing the system works. And indulging in all of this gorgeous diva energy, knowing that the audience was going to lose their mind by the end of this number before crescendoing to this stratospheric high belt that we have heard Alex Newell sing before in. It was fantastic. It was genuinely show stopping. A word that is thrown around all too often, but something that Alex Newell knows exactly how to do. And beyond just the delivery of a great vocal, really understanding the material and the timing and the comedy and the characterization. Alex is funny, great. Mama Morton would love for Alex to go back into the show frequently, as frequently as they wish. Now, the role of Billy Flynn was played by Tam Mutu, an actor who has worked both in the West End and on Broadway. I had forgotten that Tam Mutu was at the the show. That was a fun surprise. And I think as well as his leading man charisma and vocal brilliance, the real testament to how stacked this Chicago cast was were the number of Billy Flynn's in Waiting in the company just doing ensemble tracks. Max Clayton in an ensemble track when he is and has been a brilliant leading man. James T. Lane in an ensemble track in Chicago when, when I have seen him, I believe be a fantastic Billy Flynn. This honestly is the thing that really struck me when I was taking a look through the playbill is the amount of talent that was on stage giving it, you know, bowler hats and mesh T shirts. And to summarize my entire thesis here, there is just something in the show's DNA that has been dormant Perhaps for many years, but has never truly gone away. That gets stirred and reawakened when performers like this go into the show. And it's particularly as Roxy and Velma, you know, years before Wicked, it was a show for two leading ladies at the top of their game alongside one another. And there are increasingly fewer and fewer performers who really get what it means and what it takes to land a show like this and to be able to truly inhabit one of those roles in the way that they were written to be played. Because we don't have as many performers nowadays who are being trained in the same way. I don't think that we are making old school triple threat talents in the way that perhaps we used to and people are being trained for what musical theatre is becoming and contemporary musical theatre. But when you get singular stars like Kate Baldwin, like Robin Herder together in a show like this, it just ups the level of the entire thing. And you go back and you think, oh, this must be what it was was like to see this production in its opening weeks or at encores. The excitement returns to it, the thrill returns to it. A big part of that is the fact that the dancing is not as fast and intense and high energy as the choreography in the film adaptation, but it's Fosse and it's sharp and it's stylized. And so if you do it in a way that is low energy, if you mark it a little bit, then it's sort of loses its vitality. But if you do it with precision and care and understanding for the history of each move and the care with which it was choreographed and put together, then it creates something very special. It sort of feels like an astrological event the likes of which don't necessarily have happen for years at a time. But every so often the stars will align, as it were, and some of those stars may appear together in Chicago on Broadway, transforming the show into what it used to be and reminding us of its brilliance and why it's still here. So while that wasn't necessarily my usual review and an analysis of every single aspect of the production, I hope that that has conveyed some of the context and the history of what. Why this return to the show felt special and exciting and surprising. It's also perhaps unhelpful news from me because as I sit here and talk to you about this, many of the principal cast members who I discussed have finished their limited runs in the show. We have reverted to celebrity casting, which, don't get me wrong, I think is really exciting. It's great for people to be brought to Broadway shows by names and personalities who they recognize. It's great for them to be able to delight in seeing them on stage, and it's a big part of how Chicago has maintained its presence on Broadway all of these years, and long may it continue to. But I will forever be glad that I had the opportunity to see Chicago in the way I think it's truly meant to be seen and isn't very often. It feels as though this is probably the best Chicago had been in years, and who knows how long it's going to be until it's this good again. But if it seems like it is, there is every possibility that I will go back and so should you. In the meantime, thank you for listening to my thoughts. I would love to hear yours. Let me know all of your stories about your history seeing this production of Chicago, if indeed you have in the comments section down below. If you enjoyed listening to this and would like to hear more of my reviews of shows in the West End or on Broadway, make sure you're subscribed right here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this. I have been Mickey Jo, and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have have a Stagey day and all that jazz for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.
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Podcast: MickeyJoTheatre
Host: Mickey-Jo (MickeyJoTheatre)
Date: February 7, 2026
In this episode, Mickey-Jo shares his recent experience seeing the Broadway revival of Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre. Unlike past visits, he was surprised to find that the performance was, in his words, "great in ways that I did not know Chicago could ever be again" [01:23]. This leads to a broader discussion about how the show's casting can drastically transform the energy, quality, and reputation of long-running revivals. Mickey-Jo delves into the history of Chicago's casting choices—including the notoriously prevalent "stunt casting"—and makes the case for returning to its "razzle-dazzle" roots through casting Broadway veterans.
In summary:
Mickey-Jo’s review is both a personal journey and a passionate argument for quality casting in long-running revivals. He demonstrates how, when filled with legitimate musical theatre talent, Chicago reclaims its electrifying roots, reminding audiences—and even jaded critics—why it endures as a Broadway classic.