A sneak peak at rehearsal’s and one-one-one cast and creative team interviews for The Hollywood Bowl’s production of CHICAGO.
Brooke Shields, Stephen Moyer, Ashlee Simpson, Samantha Barks, Lucy Lawless all give interviews to Broadway World about this weekend’s performances at the Bowl.
Plus, there are a few short clips of a couple of the production numbers from the show. Hit around the 18 minute mark for Brooke Shields and some “All That Jazz” footage.
I got a few emails about more pics from CHICAGO the Musical I’m doing at the Hollywood Bowl, so thought I’d oblige 🙂
We all jumped in to pose with our director Brooke Shields, who clearly gets the CHICAGO thing. Having starred as “Roxie” on Broadway and in the West End, we all knew she understood the animal that is “CHICAGO.” But being “in the room” with her is really a dream. She has very clear ideas about acting beats, style and pace, and the arc of the show but doesn’t hinder her actors from exploring. I think she’s just fab. And so does the whole company.
I haven’t gone all ‘fan-boy’ on her yet – I’m holding back on embarrassing myself so far. But it’s waaay cool to be working with her. I think the pic speaks for itself. What a great star.
And while I’m talking “fan-boy” – I’m all “fan-boy” for this entire cast. What a group of talent to be working with. I’m seriously inspired to keep up. Strength, smiles, spirit and passion all around.
Shiny, happy people with our choreographer, Greg Butler (center of this pic). Greg is doing a great job staging the show in the HUGE space that is the Hollywood Bowl. The ONLY thing that’s bad about this pic is you don’t get a sense of the amazing work of art his body is.
Check out this pic from Greg’s days on the “Broad-Way” with CHICAGO. Yeah, I know; and he can act, sing and dance, too…
Here are a few more from the past couple of days:
Brooke Shields introduces the cast before we perform a couple of numbers for the press:
Stephen Moyer and Ashlee Simpson bamboozle the press in “We Both Reached for the Gun”
Chris Holly was in the first company of CHICAGO I ever did back in 1998. He went on to the Broadway company of the show (and many other Bway shows, too…). This is from the Courtroom scene he plays as “Fred Casely” with Ashlee Simpson.
And this is where this extravaganza will be performed. How about this for a big stage?
Ok, I’m a little exuberant here, but it’s the freaking Hollywood Bowl!
Today, the Hollywood Bowl cast of CHICAGO the Musical had our first rehearsal onstage at the legendary venue. You have to be amazed at how big the whole thing is. The audience, the stage,… just all of it. I took just a couple of pics in the middle of the busy day.
I climbed behind the bandstand to take this pic of our “Billy Flynn” Stephen Moyer (of TRUE BLOOD fame) rehearsing “All I Care About Is Love” with the ladies of the company
If you’ve never been to the Hollywood Bowl, this should give you an idea of how big the venue is. This is only halfway up the audience. It’s actually a state park.
After a fast first week of rehearsing CHICAGO the Musical for the Hollywood Bowl, I thought I’d share a few “behind the scenes” pics from rehearsals. The creative team is doing an amazing job getting us ready and the cast is fab. Proud to be here… 🙂
All That Jazz with Samantha Barks (yeah, me on the left – I’m the short one)
The ladies of the ensemble rehearsing “All I Care About”
Cellblock Tango rehearsal
Creative team – Greg Butler (choreographer), Leslie Stifelman(music), Brooke Shields (director) and Rob Fisher (music direction)
Rehearsing “Tap Dance” – that’s my butt in the center of the picture… Lord.
Since I posted a commercial that Brooke Shields pointed out to me yesterday, I thought I’d post one of her commercials for La-Z-Boy.
She mentioned this one yesterday so here we go…
p.s. I’m very happy to report that Brooke is an absolute doll to work with. She couldn’t be warmer, friendlier or more fun to work with. Very respectful of everyone in the cast. It’s uber-cool to be working with Brooke.
Much of the cast for the Hollywood Bowl production of Kander and Ebb’s Chicago was announced today.
Samantha Barks (“Les Misérables”) will play Velma Kelly, Drew Carey (“The Price Is Right,” “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”) is cast as Amos Hart, with Lucy Lawless (“Xena: Warrior Princess,” Grease) as Mama Morton and Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”) as Billy Flynn.
Stage and screen star Brooke Shields, who appeared in the Broadway and London productions of Chicago, will direct the award-winning musical that will run July 26-28. Rob Fisher will conduct the orchestra.
What the article failed to add was the production will mark the return of moi, Randy Slovacek, to the theatrical stage. I was called by the choreographer of the production, Gregory Butler, a few weeks ago and asked if I would perform in the show. It’s been 8 years since I performed in a full stage production.
And I said “yes.”
I laugh as I type that as I’m currently losing some of my “8 year absence from the stage” weight. Through better eating and working out again I’ve lost 12 pounds in three weeks and have about 6 pounds to go before reaching “dance weight.”
I’m excited to be a part of the show. At this point, I do know that Fosse legend and muse Sandahl Bergman will be taking the stage with us. THAT alone made me say yes. When you can be onstage with Sandahl Bergman, you do it.
I just spent the last few weeks staging the musical CHICAGO at San Diego Music Theater, which opened Saturday night. I’m very proud of the cast who were all uber-fantastic to work with.
Readers have emailed me asking how it all went. Here’s the review from San Diego’s major newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. Nice mention for me (thanks Union-Tribune) but the credit really goes to the fabu cast:
With its just-opened production of the sharply comic Kander & Ebb musical, San Diego Musical Theatre delivers all that. It’s the kind of polished, propulsive staging that’ll remind you why “Chicago” keeps running endlessly on Broadway.
Ron Kellum directs a versatile (and conspicuously fit) cast led by Kyra Da Costa as the alpha jailbird Velma Kelly and Emma Radwick as the upstart “merry murderess” Roxie Hart. Both bring comic chops and solid vocals to the roles of the antiheroines who wind up competing for dubious celebrity in the crime-fixated Windy City of the 1920s.
Robert J. Townsend steps in smartly as the defense lawyer Billy Flynn, giving this debonair character a nice bite of the cynical. The show’s smaller but still piquant roles also find good matches in Ria Carey as the jail honcho Matron “Mama” Morton (although she could stand to vamp it up a bit more); Jason James as Roxie’s seriously meek husband, Amos; and A. Saunders, who played the gossip scribe Mary Sunshine on Broadway and reprises the role here.
Musical director/conductor and SDMT regular Don Le Master leads a tight 13-piece band that brings loads of saucy personality to such memorable numbers as “All That Jazz,” “Razzle Dazzle” and (especially) “Cell Block Tango.” And choreographer Randy Slovacek stays true to the style and spirit of the late, great Bob Fosse without seeming slavish.
The show’s setting, the Birch North Park Theatre, is a bit of a mixed blessing. The feel of the place fits the piece: “Chicago” is set in 1929, the same year the ornate theater opened as a vaudeville and movie house, as SDMT co-executive director Gary Lewis pointed out before Saturday’s opening-night performance.
But the house’s shallow rake means sight lines can be dicey when the ever-limber “Chicago” dancers get down low on the stage floor.
Still, it’s more than worth a little neck-craning to see that ensemble at work, including such standouts as Jennifer Simpson (Go-to-Hell Kitty), Chuck Saculla (Roxie’s doomed squeeze Fred Casely) and Katie Whalley, who has an amusing turn as an inmate explaining her “creative differences” with her promiscuous boyfriend. (“He saw himself as alive. I saw him as dead.”)
Matthew Novotny’s lighting evokes a certain sepia-toned seediness, and Janet Pitcher’s excellent costumes – black on black on black, with boatloads of bowlers and a spangle here and there – match the musical’s tone of sexy, dark satire.
Kudos for this show? To borrow from “Tango”: They have it comin’.
Here’s a few more pics from the opening night performance (all photos by Ken Jacques):
Emma Radwick as “Roxie”
“Me and My Baby”
“We Both Reached for the Gun”
Robert Townsend and ladies – “All I Care About Is Love”
Kyra Da Costa (“Velma”) and Emma Radwick (“Roxie”) in “Nowadays”
Ria Carey (“Mama Morton”) and Kyra Da Costa (“Velma Kelly”)
