REVIEW: Chicago

With slinky Fosse choreography, cynical humor, and brassy score, Chicago has been a staple of American musical theater for decades. The current national tour has arrived in Minneapolis with that legacy firmly in tow, offering audiences a familiar parade of jazz-age spectacle, celebrity criminals, and courtroom theatrics. This touring production recreates the Broadway-version production template.

Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the plot follows aspiring performer Roxie Hart, who kills her lover and lands in jail alongside a gallery of sensational criminals. There she meets her rival, Velma Kelly, who is accused of her own murders, and the two compete for headlines as a path to freedom and fame. Slick defense attorney Billy Flynn turns courtroom proceedings into press-friendly pageants with the help of a pliable reporter and a chorus of eager witnesses. As public sympathy swings wildly and truth proves malleable, Chicago toys with America’s obsession with celebrity, corruption, and the thin line between justice and entertainment.

This run of Chicago lands differently, of course, because of the recent events taking place outside the theater doors.  Themes of guns, murder, and spin take on a completely new context with those playing out so horrifically in the streets of Minneapolis for the past month.  The audience showed up for a good time and undoubtedly enjoyed the performance, but for some it may be difficult to escape the harsh reality of a world where justice proves painfully elusive.  The satire of Chicago turns on the theme that cynical attempts to control the narrative don’t always work out how you expect, and maybe that will resonate with audiences.  If audiences find these themes too challenging, this might be one to save for the next run.  Multi-award-winning Chicago will definitely be back.

Chicago is at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis through February 1, 2026.

Photo by Jeremy Daniel