So Sleek, So Sexy, So ‘Chicago’

The Scene: Wednesday’s opening-night performance of “Chicago”--once described as “the musical comedy with teeth”--at the Ahmanson Theatre. The after-party filled the Mondrian’s Coco Pazzo restaurant and Sky Bar.

Alfre Woodard said seeing the show made her “want to dance and writhe around in that Bob Fosse style of dancing. It’s choreography that makes it look within reason for a normal person to, kind of like, do a little move.”

Why the Revival: The current effusion of trial-as-entertainment cases makes the 1975 musical in which two glamorous young women get away with murder because, well, they’re glamorous young women much more au courant. “When it first came out, this was considered really bleak satire,” said director Walter Bobbie. “Now it’s a documentary.”

Why the Mondrian? It’s a long drive from downtown, but it endures as New York’s vision of L.A. chic. “It’s so hip,” said a party guest who stays at the hotel. “I feel like I should put mousse in my hair when I go out to get the paper.”

Who Was There: The show’s stars, Charlotte d’Amboise, Jasmine Guy and Brent Barrett; Bobbie; producers Fran and Barry Weissler; plus guests including Robert Forster, Lauren Holly, Lou Pitt, Holly Hunter, Andrea Martin, Carol Lawrence, Jacqueline Bisset, Tyne Daly, Candy Brown, James Coburn, Joely Fisher and Robert Guillaume.

The Buzz: That this is the sexiest production the Music Center has seen in years. One guest said, “The show’s colors are black and flesh.” The 17th century Puritan who denounced theater as “the notorious badge of prostituted strumpets and the lewdest harlots” would have felt right at home.

But Did You Ask Them to Dance? “They made us hire two sheriffs to handle the left turn into the Mondrian’s driveway,” said Pete Sanders, the show’s New York publicist. “I wanted them to wear ‘Chicago’ T-shirts. It would look great--right there in the middle of Sunset Boulevard, they’d be wearing them. But they said no.”

Quoted: Fran Weissler on a producer’s life--”First you kill yourself that everything is right. Then you pray the critics like the show. And if they don’t, you kill yourself all over again.”

Dress Mode: When did a law pass that absolutely anything can be worn to theater? This night’s multi-generational fashion show included ‘60s go-go boots; a sky blue ‘70s Bob Mackie beaded gown, incandescent ‘80s Miami club wear and ‘90s bowling league attire.

Commented Upon: That the sleek, vain lawyer who gets the women acquitted was an echo of Johnnie Cochran. “If he can sing and dance,” said Guy, “he can come and do this show. He doesn’t have to do any research.”