Going Gaga for “Chicago” and All That Jazz

Give a girl some glitter, a disco stick, and a pair of stilettos and she becomes Lady Gaga. Give those same props to a few theater kids, and they create a Gaga-inspired production of the ever-famous musical “Chicago.”

“Everything in Gaga’s music videos is kind of similar to the idea of female fame in the 1920s and how murder is kind of a show,” said Ryan P. Halprin ’12, the head choreographer for the production. Apparently there are plenty of comparisons to be drawn between the Gaga and “Chicago” narratives—for example, the epic “Telephone” video and most of “Chicago” both take place in a prison.

Parallels aside, putting an original spin on a classic is still bold, which is fitting considering the woman whose creative energy the production team is channeling. Halprin assured FM, “We’re not changing the text [of the play], so the Gaga angle is really going to come out through the aesthetic aspects—the lighting, the dancing.”

Club Oberon will provide the venue, which should sound familiar to undergrads who watched last year’s “The Donkey Show,” featuring scantily-clad male dancers interacting with the audience. To be sure, students are already buzzing about this show as well.

“We’ve already had a great deal of positive response from the students, and also from the Boston theater-going community at large,” said show director Brandon J. Ortiz ’12.

“We’re adding a runway, so it’ll be kind of like a fashion show that comes out of the stage,” Halprin said. “We might have blood and streamers and glitter and stuff.”

If the Gaga theme is any indication, the show, premiering on December 6, promises to be eccentric. “It’s a musical, but it’s also kind of like a dance concert,” explained a member of the creative team. “We’re seeing it as a very modern pop-art kind of production.”