Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sophie Carmen-Jones, Hayley Tamaddon, John Partridge, Jessie Wallace, Francis Foreman, A D Richardson, Emily Warner, Waylon Jacobs, Lindsey Tierney, Ellie Mitchell, Nicola Coates, Francis Dee, Chelsea Labadini, Dann Kharsa, Justin-Lee Jones, Kerry Spark, Peter Nash, Adam Denman, Daniele Arbisi, Helen Siveter.

There can be no doubting that simple fact when it comes to musical theatre, if the songs and music are good enough, if they worm themselves into popular culture and have the audience anticipating their arrival on stage with almost breathless excitement and agitated longing, then they will probably carry even a half decent production through its run at a theatre or on a national tour. For Chicago, that much will always hold dear as the Roaring 20s American prohibition style, one based on good times, mayhem and two women using the system to get away with murder rolls into town with its usual fanfare and beautifully timed choreography.

The trouble with some productions is they don’t seem to come round nearly enough to the provinces, the theatres of London always having the monopoly on their time, so that when they are finally placed before their fans they somehow lose a little of their dynamic edge, they lose lustre, they become the stuff of legends and the crowd then can be more critical, more damning of their favourite characters. Chicago has that effect, stunning music, two of the great female leads and a supporting cast who should be knocking the numbers out of the park like a veteran of the game of baseball, each one a spirited play and stretching the audience to really let their feet dance and their voices sing like there was no tomorrow.

The company’s band were on absolute fire during the entire performance, the sound of Jazz pouring over the audience like honey, soft and slow, nectar to a crowd urging the combo beat to speed along like an almost unstoppable train and one that never missed the opportunity to be imaginative and creative with their allotted stance and playful grove.

It was a night where the music stole the show, aided by sincere and pleasurable performances by the leading female roles of Sophie Carmen-Jones and Hayley Tamaddon and arguably the finest staged version of We Both Reached For The Gun witnessed on the Empire Theatre stage.

Chicago, it is a state of mind, a whisper in the past that is only a banned alcoholic drink away for some, the temptation of murder away for others; it is a soundtrack that keeps giving and offers a sense of longing; Chicago, it’s anybody’s kind of town.

Ian D. Hall