Theater director Susan Hanson had just finished touching up the risers with black paint, laying out the glow tape on the floor boards and vacuuming under the enlarged picture frame for the set of “Chicago,” the musical she’s directing for Drama Dock, when she stopped to chat about the show that will open Thursday at Vashon Center for the Arts.
“I’m in theater for the glamor,” she quipped with her well-timed dry wit.
Yet the former Vashon High School principal and director of close to 50 plays and musicals knows what it takes to make a show sizzle and pop.
“Everyone is in dance garb — that’s straight from Broadway,” she said. “The black raised platforms are for the orchestra; around it is the gold picture frame. There are 10 chairs on a side, which the actors sit on during the entire performance.”
Hanson chose to mount the six-time Tony Award winning 1996 revival of “Chicago, The Musical” instead of the original 1975 show. It is much more vaudeville, she said, and the satire of making celebrities out of criminals and having the audience root for them “is so appropriate for right now.”
The musical is loosely based on several murders and the subsequent, infamous trials that took place in Chicago during the 1920s. The publicity surrounding the accused “brings to mind the mood in the current presidential campaigns: Bad publicity is better than no publicity,” Hanson wrote in a press release.
Nine years ago, Hanson directed 46 students in the show for the high school while former islander, dancer and choreographer Geoff Reiman did the choreography. The two have joined forces again, only this time with a cast of 20 actors, singers and dancers, two of whom are professional, a number with bachelor of fine arts degrees in musical theatre, some beginning to act professionally and only a few who are newcomers to the stage.
“The cast is amazing,” Hanson said. “We have really strong actors, singers and dancers, and one of the professional actors said the orchestra led by Todd Zimberg is one of the best they’d worked with.”
Principal actors are Arlette Moody as Velma Kelly, Alexandra Drissell as Roxie Hart, Marshall Murray as Billy Flynn, Stephanie Murray as Matron “Mama” Morton, Matt Wilson as Amos Hart, Miles Wingett as Mary Sunshine and Will Wasserman as MC. Ensemble members include Alexis Carleton (understudy for Roxie), Bonny Moss, Maijah Sanson-Frey, Michelle Reed, Lissy Nichols, Lisa Maclean, Meghan Murphy, Zoey Rice, Joy Ghigleri, Phil Dunn, John de Groen, Rich Wiley and David Bagaason. The show is produced by Gaye Detzer and Sue Wiley.
When Hanson directed “Chicago” in 2007, all nine shows sold out. The same is expected for the four shows of the current production. Early ticket purchase is advised.
Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, July 21, 22 and 23, and 3 p.m. Sunday, July 24. Tickets are $22 for VCA and Drama Dock members/seniors, $18 for students and $25 for general admission. Tickets are available at VCA, Heron’s Nest and vashoncenterforthearts.org.
