Swampscott students to take audience back in time

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott High School students will briefly travel back to the Roaring Twenties and take their audiences with them as the drama club performs the musical “Chicago.”The show, which debuted on Broadway in 1975 and was made into a movie that won Best Picture in 2003, is derived from a 1926 play by journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins. Set in the Jazz Age, the musical satire of political corruption and celebrity criminals tells of rival vaudeville performers Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart. Both are accused of murder in separate cases, with Hart killing her lover and Kelly killing her husband and sister who were caught in bed together. The two are sent to Cook County Jail, and with the help of a powerful prison matron and a slick lawyer, a media circus ensues as the two women vie for notoriety while planning a return to show business.Jim Pearse, the show?s director and a theater and music teacher at the high school, said the students had been eager to stage the show, which opens Thursday night at the high school auditorium.?They really love the music, which is owing to the big success of the movie when it came out,” he said, referencing the 2002 film starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere. Junior Claire Vaucher, 16, who plays Velma Kelly, said she had been waiting to be part of such a prestigious show.?It?s more than a cute musical,” she said. “It?s a trifecta musical with acting, singing and dancing.”Although “Chicago” deals with more mature themes, such as adultery and murder, there is a disclaimer on the show?s flyers and before the show begins.?It?s not ?The Sound of Music,? that?s for sure, but the community is very excited about the show,” Pearse said.In addition to a 10-to-15-person crew, Pearse said on stage there are around 30 students, including the high school?s dance team, which performs a number during the overture. He said that touch is original and not part of the traditional stage show.Senior Aimee Caron, 18, said she has grown into embodying Roxie Hart in the rehearsal process and is glad to have that lead role under her belt before she travels to Dean College in the fall to study musical theater.Giuliana Mignone, a 15-year-old sophomore, said she?s been trying to tap into her maturity to play her first big role, Matron Mama Morton, and said she wanted that role because it?s a commanding “stage capture” and it would showcase her voice well.While she can identify with the character in some respects, Mignone admits the prison matron “is a bit more sassy than I am.”Senior Scott Walker, 17, who plays Amos Hart, Roxie Hart?s husband who she tries to get to take the fall for the murder she committed, said it?s been an interesting change playing a more modest character after having the lead role in the past two musicals.Jared Solomon, 18, said playing lawyer Billy Flynn is a “dream part” and, as a senior, he can go out with a bang. In the fall, Solomon will be studying theater at New York University?s Tisch School of the Arts.?In college, you don?t get to do the show you want or play the part you want,” he said, “so this is the last hurrah.”