Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Fosse's Chicago: a post-view

The great lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg wrote: "Woe to the culture that woos TV/Where sponsors flourish and songs decay,/Where clay is hailed as cloisonne/And catch-penny poet is sage and seer."

Bob Fosse's Chicago - currently in a fine production at San Diego Musical Theatre - unfolds like an extended commentary on those lines. But Fosse's amped it up so fiercely that, in a "musical vaudeville" about celebrity villains, the real villains are gullible audiences easily swayed by razzle and dazzle.

Critics of the musical, among the most vehement around, accuse it of not having a conventional book and/or a non-specific look.

Mark N. Grant, author of The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical: "Director-choreographers choose weak books for the same reasons that some presidential candidates choose weak vice-presidential running mates: so as not to be upstaged.

"More than any other single director, [Fosse] brought the hollow revue style to the Broadway book show with the pretense that it bestowed vision on narrative material."

Fosse's nay-sayers often attack him for what he doesn't do (and possibly for a frenetic lifestyle that forced him to have open-heart surgery during the first week of rehearsals for Chicago). But just what is he doing?

In the guise of a vaudeville, Chicago harrows shallow entertainment. Fosse called the musical "Brecht Lite." In effect, it's his Cabaret, but with the spotlight turned on American culture. Wherever Chicago plays becomes the Kit Kat Klub, where morally numb audiences fall for glittering surfaces and share an appetite for violence rivaling the Roman coliseum.

The Romans kept the "mob" in check by giving them "bread and circuses." But Fosse wanted his "circus" to function like homeopathic medicine: cure a disease with its essence.

Chicago hasn't cured its audiences - oh, Bobby you should see us now! - but has become one of American theater's most vehement outcries. You can almost hear Fosse roar, "Look at yourselves! Don't you GET it?"

The song "Razzle Dazzle" spells it out: "Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it/And the reaction will be passionate./Give 'em the old hocus-pocus: bead and feather 'em. How can they see with sequins in their eyes?"

Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for "Razzle Dazzle," called Fosse "the Prince of Darkness."

Producer, director, and writer Stuart Ostrow said that Fosse accused himself most of all: "If Bob Fosse ever needed a theme song, it would have been 'Razzle Dazzle"...Bobby told me he thought of himself as 'a fraud with a couple of good dance steps.' He was a genius, of course, and died much too soon, leaving a creative musical theater legacy second only to Jerome Robbins."


San Diego Musical Theatre, Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Avenue, playing through March 3.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule
Next Article

San Diego Reader 2024 Music & Arts Issue

Favorite fakers: Baby Bushka, Fleetwood Max, Electric Waste Band, Oceans, Geezer – plus upcoming tribute schedule

The great lyricist E.Y. "Yip" Harburg wrote: "Woe to the culture that woos TV/Where sponsors flourish and songs decay,/Where clay is hailed as cloisonne/And catch-penny poet is sage and seer."

Bob Fosse's Chicago - currently in a fine production at San Diego Musical Theatre - unfolds like an extended commentary on those lines. But Fosse's amped it up so fiercely that, in a "musical vaudeville" about celebrity villains, the real villains are gullible audiences easily swayed by razzle and dazzle.

Critics of the musical, among the most vehement around, accuse it of not having a conventional book and/or a non-specific look.

Mark N. Grant, author of The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Musical: "Director-choreographers choose weak books for the same reasons that some presidential candidates choose weak vice-presidential running mates: so as not to be upstaged.

"More than any other single director, [Fosse] brought the hollow revue style to the Broadway book show with the pretense that it bestowed vision on narrative material."

Fosse's nay-sayers often attack him for what he doesn't do (and possibly for a frenetic lifestyle that forced him to have open-heart surgery during the first week of rehearsals for Chicago). But just what is he doing?

In the guise of a vaudeville, Chicago harrows shallow entertainment. Fosse called the musical "Brecht Lite." In effect, it's his Cabaret, but with the spotlight turned on American culture. Wherever Chicago plays becomes the Kit Kat Klub, where morally numb audiences fall for glittering surfaces and share an appetite for violence rivaling the Roman coliseum.

The Romans kept the "mob" in check by giving them "bread and circuses." But Fosse wanted his "circus" to function like homeopathic medicine: cure a disease with its essence.

Chicago hasn't cured its audiences - oh, Bobby you should see us now! - but has become one of American theater's most vehement outcries. You can almost hear Fosse roar, "Look at yourselves! Don't you GET it?"

The song "Razzle Dazzle" spells it out: "Give 'em an act with lots of flash in it/And the reaction will be passionate./Give 'em the old hocus-pocus: bead and feather 'em. How can they see with sequins in their eyes?"

Fred Ebb, who wrote the lyrics for "Razzle Dazzle," called Fosse "the Prince of Darkness."

Producer, director, and writer Stuart Ostrow said that Fosse accused himself most of all: "If Bob Fosse ever needed a theme song, it would have been 'Razzle Dazzle"...Bobby told me he thought of himself as 'a fraud with a couple of good dance steps.' He was a genius, of course, and died much too soon, leaving a creative musical theater legacy second only to Jerome Robbins."


San Diego Musical Theatre, Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Avenue, playing through March 3.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.