Chicago Comes to Oldham Coliseum Theatre: Murder and Sequins Ahoy

It's an unavoidable fact of life that we all have our weaknesses. Most of mine are food or drink related - cheese, crisps and a Friday gin and tonic (or seven) all feature strongly on the list of things I am not good at saying no to - but not exclusively so: for I must also confess to a certain guilty pleasure in a musical, ideally one I know well enough to sing along to in exuberant and slightly tuneless manner whilst looking forward to a glass of pink wine at the interval. In fact, Chicago fits the bill perfectly, and as luck would have it Roxie Hart and co. arrived at Oldham Coliseum Theatre on Friday for a month-long residency of murder, high-kicking and over-sized white gloves.

You probably know the story: Roxie Hart, married to boring Amos, murders ANOTHER man, goes to prison, meets fellow murderess Velma Kelly, does some singing and dancing, appoints celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn, does some more singing and dancing, gets off, puts on small sparkly outfit, does some more singing and dancing. It's all marvellous, of course - and even more excitingly, the Oldham Coliseum Theatre production is a new and original one, the first since 1997. Whatever updates have been made, all the songs will be there - I'm already warming up for my own personal big number (All That Jazz, obviously) and am very confident I can drown out the 18-strong cast if it comes to it.

I'm going later this week, but in the meantime you can read more about it here. The production runs until Saturday 12th October, with ticket prices between £11.50 and £21 - bagsy be Velma...