Below, Jackie, an American working for a social enterprise in Karachi and CHUP’s correspondent, reviews Karachi’s production of Chicago, the renowned musical about the city of Chicago in the 1920s, [to see Jackie’s other posts, click here]:
I was very excited to see many of the city’s prominent billboards advertising for the musical production of Chicago, and in English! While I have heard much about Pakistan’s theater scene, particularly in Lahore, many of these plays are in Urdu and are therefore inaccessible to me. While I had never actually seen the musical nor the popular movie – I couldn’t resist an English play and immediately bought tickets. Before reading my critique, I would like to make a small disclaimer: I have only been to a handful of live musicals in my life, and none in Pakistan.
Due to my unfamiliarity with Chicago, I was instantly shocked by the play’s overtly sexual tone and the incredibly seductive, sensual female characters. For those also ignorant – the play portrays a snapshot of the city of Chicago in the 1920s – a time of jazz and excess in a city ripe with thugs and speakeasies. The story follows the lives of a group of women, jailed for killing their husbands or lovers over seedy reasons involving love, sex and betrayal. A hustler and sleazy lawyer take advantage of these women’s stories for personal fame and money, manipulating the press to spin spectacular tales about the women and portraying them in the courtroom as poor, helpless souls.
The most entertaining and surprising aspect of the musical given our setting in conservative Pakistan, was the overt portrayal of stark sexuality. The Cell Block Tango, the main song and dance number, involves women dancing seductively on and around chairs bemoaning the gruesome, sordid details of their husband’s dalliances and subsequent murders. One of the characters kills her husband because she catches him with a girl ‘spread eagle’ on the floor. Another character laments about her husband’s poor performance in the bedroom. These issues are not mentioned in even some of the most liberal, elite households I spend my time in. The costumes hugged every curve of the actresses’ bodies and sheer black tights did little to hide long legs – a complete contrast to the often abaya-covered women of Karachi’s streets.
Roxy Hart, the main role, was played by Sanam Saeed who stole the show. Sanam completely embodied the character, and I was utterly transfixed by her performance. Each little action and mannerism and the all the intonations in her speech oozed sexuality. She mimicked the Chicago accent very well! In fact, I didn’t realize until looking at the program during intermission that she was Pakistani – I assumed her to be an American. Momin Zafar also gave a wonderful performance, playing the part of Roxie’s pathetic, puppy-love husband Amos Hart.
Unfortunately, aside from Sanam and Momin, many of the other characters were not up to speed. While I thought the acting was good, particularly the difficult Chicago accents each of the characters adapted, their musical and dancing performances were lackluster. Many of their voices were not strong enough for the stage nor were their dance moves very inspiring. The dances seemed too mechanical and rehearsed. That being said, at the last minute the production company had to change venues, and the stage went from an indoor area to an outdoor area. I would assume this involves a change in acoustics and a different sound system – perhaps the late venue change deserves at least part of the blame.
All-in-all an enjoyable two hours, and fascinating to see such sexually-charged performances and controversial themes played out under bright lights here in Pakistan.
The musical finished its Karachi run on January 20th. It will run in Lahore from January 30 – February 6, 2009. For ticket information, click here.
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Very interesting- I’m surprised they didnt down-sex the production, not even with the costumes! Any word on the local buzz surrounding the play? Or how local newspapers have reviewed the production? It would be an interesting comparison with this one!
Many thanks, Jackie for the post!
Here’s Dawn coverage of it (i think it was a special viewing for the media):
http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/27/local8.htm
Jackie, thanks for letting us know about the social/art scene in Karachi. It was interesting to read your review since it was well balanced and unbiased.
Let’s hope they continue their good work and further improve production quality.
I also hope there is an increased focus on urdu theatre so that a larger portion of our society can have entertainment options that aren’t limited to watching Indian cable TV.
I absolutely LOVE this comment from the review in Dawn.
“The story is about the justice system, murder, greed, corruption, violence and exploitation. Sounds familiar,” added the director.
Thanks Jackie for writing this review. I absolutely love Chicago, having memorized large portions of the soundtrack and watched the movie a couple of times, so it was fascinating to read about the Karachi production. The fact that such activities happen in Pakistan is very encouraging and here’s to more such events in the future.
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Let’s say I was slightly more than mildly surprised to see this post. Truthfully, I’m from Chicago so that caught my attention first. But after seeing that it was performed in Pakistan, I’m quite excited to read more about it. I am currently working on research for a paper on the role of women in media in Pakistan so this is perfect, exactly what I’m looking for! I’m just wondering how the conservatives reacted to this, if anyone has any information. Thanks Jackie, for the review!
Hi Annie-
If you email me at changinguppakistan@gmail.com, I can put you in touch with Jackie so she can provide you more info :). Thanks for visiting!
@ In Pakistan they are still suffering from Indian
bollywoodian massacre of culture, now we have
American new theatrical ” kitsch ” invasion, what have
Karachiites to do with Chicago ganster culture ??
Karachiites don’t know their own dramatists and
theatrical talents, they are given an American dose,
a cultural domination attempt, remove them, and
replace them with Urdu dramas and theatrical
pieces.
@ We are if Pakistan is
look at you how excited you are, any thing American
is out of heaven for you, your own drama you don’t even
know, do you know who were the following:
Saadat Hassan Manto
Agha Hashr Kashmiri
Khawaja Moeinuddin
bano Qudsia
Razi Akhtar Shauq,
Riaz Farshori
Saleem Ahmed
Hameed Kashmiri
and so many others
hye
i just read comments abt CHICAGO the musical…i saw it on 5th feb in lahore…n it was awsum…truly unexpectd 4 me…i watch movies alot n had heard ov CHICAGO da movie bt somehow cudnt watch it n wen i saw da play ,da first thing i did on my way hom was to get a dvd ov da movie….i compared both …n concluded dat …wot a drama….evrything was superbly done by our artists…it was a treat to watch …sanam saeed was febulous playing roxie…better den da orignal roxie,i bet n so was da momin zafar,playing amis…he was really really gud…..luckily,evrything was best here in lahore…venue ,dances,sound system,music,..a great great effort by da whole team ..and an admirable production by nadia butt…,,i m a fan ov all u chicago ppl…cant wait to c mor 4m u pll…keep it up.
A play like this should not be supported. When you have such characters as “Roxie”, who are wearing scant amount of clothing, it is wrong. What I mean is that it is wrong for such an play to be supported in Pakistan. While Pakistan is most definitively a moderate Islamic countru, people should still show respect to basic Islamic values. The people who have produced this play are not following these basic rules unless there people of some other faith.
just a couple of points for the above:
1. unislamic values? its called the performing ARTS for a reason: art is not constricted to your islamic values, neitehr should u be so quick to judge . and to accuse the people of the play not to have islamic values? perhaps we shud ask the talibaan before we dance at weddings too, cuz hell: dancing in islam is wrong rigth? where do the islamic and cultural values go then? or maybe Darde Disco is ok to dance on, but jazz isnt???
Art is universal and it has no boundaries. whether its american, indian or pakistani: Art is art. its a pity that we cannot apprecaite the good but only point fingers and criticize good work.
Art is universal… but that is not the point of my post. If I substitute the word “Islamic” with “moral/community/ etc.” values, does it not mean the same thing? I believe it does.
Also, the acts of dancing/singing/performing and there outside perceptions (allowed, disallowed, okay?) depend on various views. You’d be surprised to know that in many “conservative” weddings, dancing is allowed (of course, tailored to one gender viewing). One can appreciate international art, if it matches the culture of the viewing people.