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DULUTH — With the bitter cold gripping the Northland this week, the steamy sirens of “Chicago” will have their work cut out for them. Not to worry — they’re professionals.
The crime satire, which will be at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center on Tuesday night, is the first of four touring musical productions that constitute the inaugural season of “Broadway at the DECC.” The offerings mark the first time in over a decade that a full series of touring musical shows has been booked in Duluth. (The DECC plans a second season, though details have not yet been announced.)
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Whether you already have your season tickets booked, are considering dropping in, or are just curious about what’s coming to town, here’s the history behind each of the four productions. For tickets and details, see decc.org.
This is by far the most venerable show in the series, now marking 50 years since its Broadway debut.
It’s the best-known show associated with Broadway legend Bob Fosse, who directed and choreographed the original production as well as co-writing the book (script) with lyricist Fred Ebb. Longtime Ebb collaborator John Kander wrote the music; the duo are also known for shows including “Cabaret” (1966).
Based on a 1926 play that was itself inspired by a pair of 1924 court cases, “Chicago” is a satire that skewers legal corruption and the allure of the celebrity criminal. In its initial run, the musical received a mixed reception and had its thunder stolen by the colossal success of “A Chorus Line.”
A 1996 revival met a much warmer reception, with Broadway observers theorizing that decade’s real-life celebrity criminals made the show’s themes more timely. The revival is still running to this day, making it the longest-running show currently on Broadway.
A hit 2002 film adaptation starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere brought “Chicago” to a still larger audience, and landed six Oscars including Best Picture. This year’s Oscar nominations will be announced Thursday, and if “Wicked” gets a nod — as expected — in the Best Picture category, theater fans will be watching March 2 to see if it becomes the first musical since “Chicago” to win that award.
There’s a potential Oscars link here, too: Many viewers have called 2024’s “Anora,” expected to earn star Mikey Madison a nomination for Best Actress, a grittier twist on the premise of the 1990 rom-com starring Gere (there he is again) and Julia Roberts. (Fun fact: “Pretty Woman” was Disney’s top-grossing R-rated movie until last year’s “Deadpool & Wolverine.”)
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The musical adaptation, which followed 28 years later, hasn’t been such an unqualified success. With pop star Bryan Adams and his writing partner Jim Vallance writing the music, the show earned critical pans and lasted just a year on Broadway. It probably didn’t help that Roy Orbison’s iconic 1964 song, which inspired the title of the movie and appeared on its triple-platinum soundtrack, wasn’t initially included in the Broadway show.
Audience expectations may be low going into the current touring production, but some viewers are ready to give the material a fresh look. Reviewing the touring production, Florida critic Aaron Krause avers the musical’s first critics were a little harsh and assures readers “the high-energy, rejuvenating, and moving stage show is faithful to the film to a fault.”
In other words, if you want to see “Pretty Woman,” the movie — except it’s a musical and it’s onstage — you won’t be disappointed.
Screenwriter Tina Fey’s 2004 teen comedy flick continues to gain cultural cachet — it even earned a lyrical shoutout from Chappell Roan, current queen of the pop zeitgeist.
The musical adaptation, which hit Broadway in 2018 and lasted until the pandemic shutdown, just earned a 2024 film production of its own. The new movie was a solid, if modest, box office success, whether despite or because of a promotional campaign that obscured the fact it was a musical.
The self-deprecating Cady Heron might find some humor in the fact that the adaptation racked up a full dozen Tony nominations without landing a single win. Reviewers generally praised Fey’s updated script over the numerous songs by Jeff Richmond (Fey’s husband) and Nell Benjamin, which were described with words like “workmanlike” (The Hollywood Reporter) and “passable” (New York Times).
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The current touring production originally boasted University of Minnesota Twin Cities graduate Natalie Shaw as Cady, but a vocal injury has since forced her to step away from the role, with Katie Yeomans picking up the Burn Book. When the show stopped in Detroit last month, critic Brian Kitson called it “hilarious and enjoyable,” but deemed the songs “forgettable.”
Before the mid-1990s, the average American couldn’t have demonstrated traditional Irish dance even if you dispatched a leprechaun to nip at their heels. Since the arrival of “Riverdance,” that’s changed.
Over 30 million people have now seen some form of “Riverdance,” which started as a Eurovision Song Contest interval performance and turned into a smash success touring show, making “Lord of the Dance” Michael Flatley perhaps the first-ever world-famous traditional Irish dancer.
While “Riverdance” has been a Broadway show, it’s not a book musical like the other shows in the DECC’s season. It’s a series of dances accompanied by live music. The version coming to Duluth is “Riverdance: The New Generation,” distinguished by a cast of performers who weren’t alive when the show first danced its way across the Atlantic.
Siobhan Burke, a New York Times dance writer who formerly performed in “Riverdance,” points out that the show’s choreography actually departs from traditional Irish dance in ways that seemed “modern, alluring, cool” to those who knew the art form before its glow-up.
She also notes that the show isn’t only about Irish dance. “People forget, or just don’t know,” she said, “that ‘Riverdance’ is essentially a variety show; the Rockettes-like lines of Irish dancers are the main event, but there’s so much more.”
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