Chicago
at Langley High School

Reviewed on April 15, 2016

Gillian Wright
McLean High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Fairfax

Pop! Six! Squish! Uh oh. Cicero. Lipschitz! The chilling yet mysterious words rang out over the auditorium as half a dozen women seductively draped themselves over prison bars. Thus began the storyline of Langley High School's "Chicago," with drama heightening in each subsequent number of this thrilling production.

Debuting on Broadway in 1975, the musical was an instant classic and is still regarded as one of the best shows for jazzy music and excellent dance numbers. A film adaptation was produced in 2002 and the musical was revived in New York in 1996, winning six Tony Awards. John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse's musical follows Roxie Hart, an attractive young murderess in the 1920's, as she breaks into the social scene of her prison, where she must compete with incarcerated vaudeville performer Velma Kelly for prestige and press attention.

Jamie Goodson's performance as Velma was exceptional, from her prodigious vocal accomplishments to her emotional monologues and her superbly-executed dancing. Whether arguing with Roxie, conversing with prison mates, or commanding a solo, Goodson demonstrated an arresting stage presence and absolute dedication to her character.

Constantly vying for attention by any means necessary, Roxie (Brittany Lund), was a constant source of comic relief through expressive physicality and a dryly witty tone when she was not using her stunning singing voice or demonstrating her prowess for dance. Initially overshadowed by the starlet, Roxie's husband, Amos (Mark Bosset) stole the spotlight with his solo number, "Mister Cellophane," in which he cast off his shy demeanor to denounce his social invisibility.

A source of contention between Velma and Roxie, lawyer Billy Flynn (Richie Follin) demonstrated a generally greasy character who could switch instantaneously to charismatic charm. Primarily observed acting, Follin's amazing voice elevated "We Both Reached for the Gun" to a superior status. Matron "Mama" Morton (Camila Maric) was an interceder among Velma, Roxie, and Billy, using her body and interpersonal skills to manipulate unjust outcomes and soothe wounded egos.

Essential to the show's success was a corps of agile dancers nearly professional in quality whose roles ranged from journalists to circus members. Starting with the dazzling open number, "All That Jazz," the dancers were precise and expressive, using their entire bodies to convey the suggestive undertones in songs. Especially impressive was performer Cuinn Casey, whose spectacular acrobatics and dance skills garnered round after round of applause.

Every aspect of the performance was enhanced by proficiently executed technical aspects. Despite only having access to the performance space for five days before the show opened, sound and light were nearly flawless. Though characters were occasionally lit too dimly, colorful LED lights were employed to underscore the shifting moods in the show, an exciting effect that was never distracting. A simple yet cleanly constructed set consisted of several rolling pairs of stairs, providing performers with numerous entrances and levels, as well as sleek prison bars used to denote the jail scenes. Creative makeup designs emphasized the lavish theme of the show, while individualized costumes of a coordinated color scheme allowed further cohesion in the ensemble.

Roxie struggles for love and justice but eventually finds that neither is fulfilling. Velma, who has clawed her way to the top, learns that fame only lasts until a fresher story develops. Though the show takes place nearly a century ago, the tendency persists to fight for power and fame no matter which morals must be compromised. Thanks to Langley's outstanding performance of "Chicago," it can truly be said that "in this town, murder is the entertainment."

Amanda Hampton
Riverside High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Fairfax

Langley High School certainly gave the audience the old razzle dazzle with their production of Bob Fosse's masterpiece Chicago. Opening on Broadway in 1975, Chicago is the longest running American musical on Broadway, winning 6 Tonys, 2 Olivier awards, and a Grammy, and for good reason. The show's cynical outlook on the American justice system makes it an instant classic. Set in the Roaring 20's, Chicago weaves an intoxicating web of crime, greed, and show-biz, and revolves around murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart as they try to navigate their way through the world of vaudeville (and jail). With the help of hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn and an abundance of slinky dance moves, Velma and Roxie just might win over the jury as well as the audience.

Overall, the cast perfectly embodied the stone-cold characters, enveloping them in glitz and glam until they seemed almost human, and their actions almost justifiable. Jamie Goodson played the highly demanding part of Velma Kelly to a T, bringing a perfect mix of sardonic grit and ardent desperation to the high-kicking role. With impressive stamina and a voice to bring the house down, Goodson was just the powerhouse needed to do justice to an emblem of Fosse. Opposite her was Brittany Lund as the cold-blooded antihero Roxie Hart. She managed to capture both the innocence of a young ingénue and the brittle selfishness of a criminal who will do whatever she has to get acquitted (and get her spotlight). Lund's vocals were also impressive, lending a smoky contrast to Goodson's crystal-clear notes.

Mark Bosset shone as Amos Hart, the unassuming pushover of a guy who is Roxy's husband as well as the only person in the show with entirely pure motives. With his timid charm and self-deprecating humor, he had the audience wrapped entirely around his finger with the sympathy inducing "Mr. Cellophane." The six merry murderesses (Jamie Goodson, Sydney Copp, Sarah Maloney, Lily Brock, Elenitsa Sgouros , and Jessica Peros) seen in the show-stopping number "Cell Block Tango" were all beautifully diabolical, embodying the malicious aspects of the show in the high-energy, vengeful anthem. The ensemble as a whole was a sleek, elegant unit, pulling off stunning acrobatic feats and Fosse-worthy choreography magnificently.

The technical elements seemed to run as smoothly as the show itself. The minimalistic set lent itself beautifully to the overall feel of the show, keeping the focus squarely on the sizzling dance numbers while still providing an urban vibe. The lighting also kept it simple with the use of contrast between energy-ridden, brightly lit ensemble numbers and dim, sultry solo songs. Apart from some minor microphone hiccups, all the backstage components of the show supplemented the onstage action wonderfully.

With killer enthusiasm and unrelenting charm, Langley High School's production of Chicago was to die for.

Neal Going
James Madison High School
Submitted for publication to FCPS Community News

Pop! Six! Squish! Chicago! The iconic 1975 tale hit the stage with show-stopping dances accompanied by powerhouse vocals in Langley High School's production of Chicago the Musical.

Originally choreographed on Broadway by Bob Fosse, Chicago tells the story of two "merry murderesses" as they compete for fame from their cells: Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart. The cabaret-style setting intimately connects the audience to the duo as they duel for short-lived publicity and long-awaited freedom.

Intense, energetic ensemble members anchored the show along with the leading ladies, Velma and Roxie (play by Jamie Goodson and Brittany Lund, respectively). Superior choreography and characterization carried the age-old show.

Jamie Goodson (Velma Kelly) led the production with her high-kicks, strong belts, and intimate characterization. Goodson demonstrated her vocal versatility in her sultry number "All That Jazz" and her intimate duet in "Class". Matching Goodson's excellent dancing and vocals, Brittany Lund (Roxie Hart) delivered the corrupt and "rough-and-ready" competitor to Velma with ease. Lund shined in the show-stopping number "We Both Reached for the Gun" in which she lost all emotions as she assumed the role of a puppet. Goodson and Lund realistically developed from rivals to friends as they ended the show with their duet act in "Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag".

Richie Follin (Billy Flynn) admirably supported the duo as the sleazy, opportunistic attorney. Holding a note for more than thirty seconds in "We Both Reached for the Gun", Follin proved his ability and garnered much applause. Similarly, Camila Maric (Matron "Mama" Morton) believably developed a middle-aged hag with extreme cunning and sass in her iconic number "When You're Good to Mama".

Mark Bosset (Amos Hart, Roxie's hopeless and innocent husband) connected to the audience through his touching plea for acknowledgment: "Mister Cellophane". Cuinn Casey commanded the stage with fierce focus and numerous high kicks, splits, flips, and aerials. A. Akbari (Mary Sunshine) reached the highest of notes in the featured solo "A Little Bit of Good". The dancing ensemble displayed maturity and focus as they executed risque choreography with ease.

The publicity team lead by Andal Paul delivered a nearly-full audience into the brand new theatre-- finished just five days before opening night. Laura Gordon successfully reinforced themes throughout the show with unobtrusive, thoughtful lighting. Despite not having a back curtain due to construction, Gordon lit the back brick wall with soft tones matching each actor's costumes: bubblegum pink for Roxie, sexy red for Velma, and artful green for Mama. While some lines were lost as the actors quickly transitioned to the next scene during applause, the outstanding numbers prevailed.

Langley High School's Chicago left the audience clapping on its feet with wide grins. Their re-invigoration of the musical inspired much laughter and amazement.

Kendra Weingast
Lake Braddock Secondary School
Submitted for publication to Patch.com - Fairfax

"The name on everybody's lips is gonna be ‘Langley,'" after Langley High School's stunning performance of the musical vaudeville "Chicago." With the bright lights and big dreams of stardom, Chicago achieves what is often the missing element in high school shows: a complete love and embrace of a production. Full of lust and greed, Roxie and Velma and the rest of Langley High School stormed the stage with crimes of passion - passion for the spotlight, of course.

Presented in vaudevillian style, Chicago follows Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly as they travel through the limelight and the American legal system, trying their hardest to keep their names in the papers as long as they can. Jamie Goodson (Velma) exuded confidence, seducing characters as well as the audience, wrapping both around her finger with just the effort of a grin. Her incredible voice and endurance never wavered, even during "I Can't Do It Alone," a song which showcased her running across the stage doing humorous dances and acrobatics. Brittany Lund (Roxie) created a character that on a good day could be called "heartless." Lund bounced between deceiving her husband (Amos Hart, played by a lovable Mark Bosset) and plotting with her lawyer (the sleazy Billy Flynn played by Richie Follin), while remaining truthful to Roxie's true love: fame.

Follin created a character of sharp wit and disrepute, proclaiming his care for love with one hand, while opening his wallet with the other. Bosset captured the audience's heart with his charming, if somewhat dopey, character. Most notably, however, was Bosset's beautiful use of the original Fosse dance style during his heart-wrenching "Mister Cellophane." Camila Maric embodied the persona of Matron "Mama" Morton and her somewhat rambunctious nature. Maric's voice soared, filled with the rich maturity of a professional singer.

Lighting, designed by Laura Gordon complemented every scene with interesting color splashes representing the different power structures on stage. Velma's tie with the color red and Roxie's color pink battle it out as the actresses below insult and fight each other. Set, by Mikey Mellis, Leo Mahdessian, and Joseph Kenton, was minimal, allowing the focus to be drawn to the actor's performance instead of creating clunky scene changes. Set pieces, such as the jail cell doors used in the "Cell Block Tango," were used both as an aesthetic choice and also as a dancing prop, adding complexity to the choreography and allowing actors to make different character choices with how they integrated them.

Cammie Charron (makeup designer) created an intriguing atmosphere. Rejecting the easy approach, she used blacks and whites with minimal metallic for the ensemble, creating each character a little differently. This effort paid off. Props (designed by Amelia Patton) created the larger-than-life atmosphere. Gigantic feather fans, large barbells, and angry/happy masks, were used throughout the show to reinforce the disconnect with reality and sanity.

From the commitment of every actor and technician to the very smallest prop, the cast and crew brought the level of professionalism needed in such a risqué musical. Langley High School was able to mix the humor with the erotic in a musical that sparkles with the fervor of the 1920's. "Chicago" truly brought on the razzle-dazzle.

Mikayla Hodge
Albert Einstein High School
Submitted for publication to Connection

Lights, camera, corruption! Chicago is all about the seedy, sneaky underbelly of the urban 1920's. Since its Broadway debut in 1975, the vaudeville musical has enthralled and scandalized audiences with suggestive lyrics, despicable characters, and an unflinching satire of the criminal justice system. Last night, Langley High School did this daring show justice with maturity and sophistication.

Jamie Goodson (Velma Kelly) began the night's festivities with "All That Jazz". Goodson executed her numerous solos with impressive stamina, often hitting high kicks and high notes on the same beat. She elicited gasps from onlookers as she dropped into perfect splits and single-handedly performed a duet in "I Can't Do it Alone". She moved and sang cohesively with the ensemble while maintaining an individuality that was intimidating. During both "My Own Best Friend" and "Class", Goodson meshed flawlessly with Brittany Lund (Roxie Hart) and Camila Maric (Matron "Mama" Morton), respectively. Her facial expressions in particular carried her character.

Brittany Lund skillfully maneuvered Roxie's emotional twists and turns from enraged, to confident, to hopeless. She exuded a sleazy air that paired with the musical's overall tone. Richie Follin (Billy Flynn) also mastered the art of simultaneously attracting the audience with his smooth voice and magnetic stage presence, and repelling viewers with his questionable law practices. Unfortunately for some actors, the portrayal of immoral came off as indifferent.

This immorality was offset heartwrenchingly by Amos Hart's (Mark Bosset) dim innocence. Bosset prompted audible sympathy from the audience with each rejection and disappointment.

Vocalists such as Camila Maric and Mary Sunshine (A. Akbari) especially wowed the audience. Maric supported her solo number, "When You're Good to Mama" in gorgeous fashion. She fully and expertly embodied the iconic role of the underhanded matron. A. Akbari's grand soprano warbles were even more impressive in retrospect, after he is revealed to be male.

The technical aspects of the show were at turns vivid and understated to suit the performance. Each major character had their own color that the lights and costumes followed throughout the show. Velma's red expressed her temper and sensuality, Mama's green illustrated her greed, and Roxie's pink represented her childish petulance. This commendable attention to detail was even more striking when accounting the difficulties the company had finding performing space due to Langley High School's major renovations.

The Chicago company put on a brilliant show that audiences won't soon forget.

Cecily Wolfe
Flint Hill School
Submitted for publication to Fairfax County Times

With a "five, six, seven, eight," a snap and a suggestive purse of the lips, Langley High School's starkly clad ensemble painted an intense and sensuous scene that immediately lured the audience into the infamously immoral musical Chicago.

Based on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Chicago was written by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, with music by John Kander and lyrics also by Ebb. It boasts the second-longest run on Broadway and the longest for an American musical on West End, as well as a 2002 movie adaptation. Set in the 1920's, "nobody" Roxie Hart hires suave lawyer Billy Flynn to acquit her of murder charges and attempts to navigate her tense relationship with star and fellow convict Velma Kelly in a dizzying series of jazzy showstoppers, provocative dances and those bordering on the acrobatic, and biting humor.

Langley High School's Chicago lived up to all the jazz, scandalous clothing, and crime intrigue the Roaring Twenties promises. As Velma, Jamie Goodson had a commanding presence, brashly lounging about, then strutting, kicking, even cartwheeling and easily landing in the splits. Sultry hip shimmies and coy smiles combined with jealous outbursts and purposeful flashes of insecurity demonstrated Goodson's acting range, while her clear belt and vaudevillian dancing antics in "All That Jazz" and "I Can't Do it Alone" revealed her to be a dynamic powerhouse. Her nemesis, the paradoxically arrogant ingénue Roxie (Brittany Lund), portrayed a conceited young woman with her pouty lips, constant hands-on-hips pose in a display of both confidence and disgust, as well as the ease with which she sauntered onstage, twirling and sashaying her way to fleeting stardom in numbers such as "Me and My Baby."

As these two young ladies slunk their way through cells and courtrooms, they were accompanied by lawyer Billy Flynn (Richie Follin) whose understated charm and lilting voice in "All I Care About" complemented the boldness of his two clients. Matron "Mama" Morton's (Camila Maric) casual superiority and rich, edgy vocals in "When You're Good to Mama" effortlessly conveyed a sassy, jaded attitude. In addition, the operatic trilling and proper tiptoeing of Mary Sunshine (Ammad Akbari) made the revelation of Miss Sunshine's "true character" all the more hilarious and the courtroom proceedings all the more ridiculous, while diffident husband Amos Hart's (Mark Bosset) shuffling and hand-wringing rendition of "Mr. Cellophane" contributed a note of sincerity and elicited sympathetic sounds from the audience.

Adding yet another layer, the ensemble acted as a pseudo-Greek chorus, with standouts such as Cuinn Casey leading quietly alluring dancers and singers in "All That Jazz," frenetic ones in "We Both Reached for the Gun," and a bizarre cluster verbally and physically echoing and commenting on the chaos of Roxie's trial. The Merry Murderesses (Goodson, Sydney Copp, Sarah Maloney, Lily Brock, Elenitsa Sgouros, Jessica Peros) also proved undeniably memorable, their intensity palpable in their soul-searching gazes and agile, gritty choreography. Technical aspects directly complemented this outlandish bunch. The ensemble sported exotic swirls on their faces and carried everything from feathers to batons, while others' makeup and the props were appropriately period. Minimal sets composed of stairs provided opportunities for levels and tricks, and lights reflected the tone of the scene and supplemented costume choices with smoky and bleak lighting for the ensemble, red for Velma's outbursts, and pink for Roxie narcissistic fantasies.

Overall, Langley High School's production of Chicago proved to be entertainingly scandalous, decidedly funny, and insidiously seductive, all pulled off with a stunning effortlessness, which, as Roxie flippantly remarked, "That's show biz, kid."