‘Chicago’ stays in step with times like these

The murderess giggles excitedly as she sees her name in headlines. She’s the center of attention -- a star -- all because the world is peopled with enough patsies to treat her like one.

The musical “Chicago” isn’t subtle about pointing out who those patsies are. It holds a mirror up to society, then gleefully hoists the looking glass into the air and smashes it over our heads. This show will be relevant as long as there are people who pay the least notice to “Jerry Springer Show” subjects, reality TV contestants or gubernatorial-recall attention seekers.

So it doesn’t matter that John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse’s 1975 musical was made into a best picture Oscar winner that has just been released on DVD. The stage incarnation remains deliciously pertinent, especially in the hands of the lively touring company -- led by Gregory Harrison, Brenda Braxton and Bianca Marroquin -- who will perform it through Sunday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

That isn’t to say the staging is flawless. One thing the 2002 movie does infinitely better is to re-create the period feel of 1920s Chicago, with its intoxicating mix of jazz, liquor and danger. The 1996 Walter Bobbie stage revival, by contrast, is presented in skin-flashing present-day dress that looks as though it was pulled from the racks at Frederick’s of Hollywood. The only clues to the story’s time frame come in such details as the shape of a machine gun used to mow down an unfaithful lover or the ‘20s dance moves layered into Ann Reinking’s Fosse-styled choreography (re-created here by Gary Chryst).

On the other hand, the stage version has more fun with “Chicago’s” vaudeville format, as freed murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart relive their sensational pasts in a series of song-and-dance numbers and comedy routines.

As Roxie, the adulterous, attention-starved wife who makes headlines when she kills a lover, Marroquin is a pert, pixieish, flame-haired delight. This Mexican dynamo’s trumpet-like singing voice makes the audience sit up and take notice, as do dance moves that call into question whether there’s a single solid bone in her body.

Meanwhile, the velvet-voiced Braxton -- a Tony nominee for “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” -- renders the two-bit hoofer Velma as a knockout combination of street smarts and elegance.

Harrison was once a tent post of Los Angeles theater, as an actor as well as a producer. It’s good to see him again, especially in a role that makes such wonderful use of his too suave, too handsome looks -- as huckster defense lawyer Billy Flynn.

Other standouts are Ray Bokhour as Roxie’s invisible husband and R. Bean as a sob sister reporter whose true identity -- revealed in an amusing coup de theatre -- is missing from the movie.

*

‘Chicago’

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: Today-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7:30 p.m.

Ends: Sunday

Price: $28.75-$65.75

Info: Tickets, (714) 740-7878 or (213) 365-3500; information, (714) 556-2787

Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Bianca Marroquin...Roxie Hart

Brenda Braxton...Velma Kelly

Gregory Harrison...Billy Flynn

Ray Bokhour...Amos Hart

Marcia Lewis Bryan...Matron “Mama” Morton

A Barry & Fran Weissler production. Book by Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse; music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb. Directed by Walter Bobbie. Original choreography by Ann Reinking, re-created by Gary Chryst. Set John Lee Beatty. Costumes William Ivey Long. Lights Ken Billington. Conductor Vincent Fanuele.