Chicago is a classic Broadway musical that premiered in 1975, based on the 1926 premiere of the stage play of the same name.
First of all, the play itself is a mockery of the corruption of the American entertainment and press, so the overall style is very close to the "Flamboyant Show" that was popular in the United States in the 1920s, especially the jazz music and luxurious costumes. , I think the most representative of this is the song "Razzle Dazzle", the whole scene is full of extravagant atmosphere.
There is no shortage of creative and novel expressions in this play. The most famous "Cell Block Tango" in the whole play shows the plot of six female prisoners narrating their prison experiences in prison. The effect of this paragraph is very shocking whether it is in the movie version or the stage version. The basic drum elements of this song are composed of "the sound of dripping water from the tap", "the footsteps of prison guards", and "nails knocking on the prison door", which integrates well with the scene. Although in most of the stage performances, the actors are played alone and there is not too much dancing, but the presentation is very simple: everyone only needs to move the props that need to interact with them on the stage to present a great effect. This prop is usually a chair or a simple swinging prison door. Actors only need to rotate the chair (or prison door) on stage to greatly improve their performance. The presentation in the film version is in the spirit of "luxury", with pas de deux, multiple split shots that switch quickly to the beat, and a large number of dancers. I think the movie version looks more shocking because every male backup dancer has done it in detail. In the stage version, male backup dancers usually don't appear. I like the movie version's adaptation of this: every male backup dancer The costumes are all different and fit the characters; elements of red scarves are added to make the murder more intuitive; the final group dance is surprisingly neat and consistent.
There is also my favorite aria "Mister Cellophane". This song is only sung by one actor throughout the whole process. It seems out of place in this stage play with "luxury" as the main style, but it can shock the audience. Effect. From the plot point of view, after Roxie was imprisoned, her husband Amos still persevered even after she found out that she was cheating, and even cobbled together two thousand dollars to the lawyer, hoping that the lawyer could save Roxie from prison. It's a pity that Roxie didn't care about Amos's efforts and ignored him after he became famous. Today, Roxie broke another news: she was pregnant. In an interview with the media, Amos stood in the crowd and shouted: "Let me see her! I am the father of the child! I am the father of the child!!" But got no response. In desperation he put on his gloves and sang "Mister Cellophane". What I think is fascinating about this song is its huge contrast: in a play that is mainly "fancy show", there is only one actor singing solo; Note; the original hilarious clown dance has been adapted into a slow-paced, tragic dance; even the audience's reaction after the actor sings can be regarded as part of the performance - the audience burst into applause , Amos was noticed for the first time in his life, but he was still lost, turned away, and immediately moved on to the next gorgeous song, Amos's sadness was washed down and forgotten.
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