North Salem High School Golden Stage Society to perform "Chicago: Teen Edition"

On Friday night, the curtain will go up inside the North Salem Middle/High School auditorium for the Golden Stage Society’s first of three public performances of "Chicago: Teen Edition." Nearly 50 students–including 33 cast members and 15 crew members–have been working on the play since mid-December, rehearsing five days a week in preparation for the jazz age musical.

“You really have to have the right people, the right personalities, voices and dancers to fill all the characters and make them believable,” said Katie Chan Chee, music teacher at North Salem High School and director of the play. “We were looking at the options and it just seemed like we had the right cast for it.”

A few cast members from "Chicago: Teen Edition." Photo courtesy of Katie Chan Chee

The Broadway production of Chicago, which has been running since 1996, centers on two female murderers in 1920s Chicago. The teen version promises to be more family friendly. “There are certainly adult themes,” Chan Chee said, noting the "murder, greed and corruption, but nothing is super overt. I think kids can enjoy it for the production of it. High schoolers like a little more risque, so they gravitate toward that. And adults know it as this thing that’s been running on Broadway for 20-some years. That’s why it works for many different age groups.”

 Chan Chee said that the show's themes remain as relevant today as when the musical was written in 1975. “It shines a light on inequities within the justice system, based on the haves and the have nots,” she said. “The kids get it. They understand why we’re doing this show and how it’s so timely. I’m pleased that they get what we’re doing.”

Perhaps the most rewarding outcome of putting on "Chicago," though, has nothing to do with the play and everything to do with the performers themselves.

“Last Friday we did a group circle and went around and said nice things about each other,” Chan Chee said. “At the end of it, a student raised their hand and said, ‘I feel like I finally have people I belong with.’ That’s the whole reason to do it. The show is sort of secondary to that as far as I’m concerned.”

"Chicago: Teen Edition" show dates and times:

• Friday, March 10; 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, March 11; 7:30 p.m.
• Sunday, March 12; 2:00 p.m.

Click here to purchase advance tickets.