Last night my mom, sister, aunt, two cousins and I went to see Chicago at The Muny! My mom and aunt have what they call "a connection" so we were in the second and third rows, and may I just say: HOLY smokes.
I went and saw the movie version of Chicago with my mom my junior year of high school and it absolutely blew my mind. I feel like with some musicals I want more more more but Rob Marshall took it above and beyond on the big screen. Who knew Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John C. Reilly and Richard Gere had it in them? Before the movie even hit theaters I watched a behind the scene special on VH1 (I'm awesome) and was immediately obsessed. Mom and I sped as quickly as we could to the nearest store to buy the CD as soon as we left the movie and I played it till it broke. A family friend bought a bootlegged copy of the movie at a flea market (this still happens?) and tried to burn us a copy. I honestly think this was one of my top 5 most excited moments in my life when we finally got that burned copy. We put it in, it didn't work. I was so pissed - that's always how things work for me though. The things I'm super excited about never end up working - I think there's a lesson in there somewhere but I'm too busy raving about Chicago to look for it.
So last night the play starts and we're already getting goosebumps and whispering "This one's my favorite", "No, this one's my favorite" to each other. The Cell-Block Tango number was fantastic (although, I couldn't help but notice, it wasn't as insane as the film version. Smaller stage though - I get it) and the singers were pitch-perfect. Then Billy Flynn's first number comes up. "He sounds just like Richard Gere in the movie," my sister noticed. Indeed he did, and he was a handsome Billy Flynn at that! No sooner than I decided that I wanted to find out what else this actor has starred in, we found his name in the Playbill - it's Justin Guarini!
This kid from American Idol season 1:
Well. Now he looks like this:
As they said in Clueless, "Not a total Betty, but a vast improvement." He was so good. I'd venture to say he was the best thing about the whole play. Not bad for a curly haired kid from Georgia!
I can't decide now whether I liked the live version better or if the movie still has my heart. The live version obviously had some songs that didn't make it in to the movie and some were better than others. My favorite of these was "Class" sung by Mama Morton and Velma. This one actually was taped with Queen Latifa and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but was cut from the film:
Please disregard the subtitles. Or don't... either way.
Anyway - I highly recommend you see this movie if you haven't already. And if you get an opportunity to see it live - jump at it. You won't be disappointed!
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