On Stage Tonight: "Chicago"

    Can't recommend this musical highly enough - Chicago takes the stage tonight in Huntington! I saw it a few years back in Columbus and loved it.

   Here's the story by my pal Dave Lavender for the Herald-Dispatch. You can read it at this link - here's an excerpt:

   To hear actress Dylis Croman talk about the musical "Chicago," you'd say it's pretty "spectacular."

   "It is 'Chicago.' It is a spectacular story and spectacular dancing and spectacular music - and to share it with people is an absolute joy," Croman said by phone.

   Croman, who has been with the "Chicago" family some 12 years playing the lead role of Roxie Hart both on Broadway and now on the national tour of "Chicago," isn't just hyping the musical, because she doesn't need to - it's "Chicago."

   And it is swinging its way here into the heart of Huntington. 

   Presented by First Sentry Bank, the Marshall Artists Series performance of the national tour of "Chicago" - the No. 1 longest-running American music in Broadway history - will be performed at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12.

   Tickets are $64, $70, $81 and $97 at the Marshall Artists Series Box Office at 304-696-6656, online at Ticketmaster.com or at the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse box office from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

   With a legendary book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb, "Chicago," which is set in the Windy City in the Roarin' 1920s, tells the wild, music-and-dance-filled rollercoaster story of drama queen Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her side-man after he threatens to leave her. After being arrested, Roxie meets the six "merry murderesses" at the Cook County Jail, including Velma Kelly, her rival cellmate.

   Desperate to avoid conviction, Roxie hires Chicago's slickest criminal lawyer to twist her crime into a publicity opportunity by way of sensational headlines in hopes of getting set free.