• Out and About alerts  I've seen two versions of Bob Fosse's
blazing musical in the last three months - SD Musical Theatre
and Welk Resort , both pyrotechnical - and am even more
convinced Chicago is his American Cabaret. In both, standards
are sinking; a slow trickle's become a cascade.  In Cabaret, as
more and more brown-shirts terrorize the streets, denizens of
the Kit Kat Klub escape into decadence and nihilism. In Chicago,
people don't flee, they run toward the light, any light, even
just a flicker of glitz, and give it full devotion until the
next spark lures them away.  At the Welk, dressed and smiling
like the M.C. for the Miss America Pageant, Casey Marshall sings
"Razzle Dazzle," one of the most cynical songs in musical
theater: "What if your hinges all are rusting?/What if, in fact,
you're just disgusting?/ Razzle dazzle em, and they'll never
catch wise."  He also means us, watching Chicago and falling for
the relentless shine and energy as strange, Beckett-like
performers dress in black - fishnet