THE Lord Mayor was there, and the Sheriff, and the grand Dame from the other place, Berwick Kaler. York royalty, as it were, had turned out for the press night of the biggest Grand Opera House show of the year.

Full to the gills, the auditorium was airless and even hotter than in summertime, another sign of an extra frisson emanating from this fruitiest of Broadway musicals.

Chicago is so 'big' it is almost too big for the restrictive Opera House stage. Chicago's raked band stand with its picture-frame gilt trim takes up much of the space, but the Chicago touring troupe has been there, done that, bought the sexy undies, and so it was showbusiness as usual.

Tight-cornered entries and exits were executed with the lan of Michael Schumacher in all his Formula One pomp, and the stairways, walk-downs and high-rise swinging ladders afforded chances aplenty to escape the stage traffic jam.

Chicago, The Musical has acquired new legs (long and shapely of course) from the success of Chicago, The Film, and truth be told, it is the superior spectacle. Only on stage may the full Fosse be with you. Bob Fosse's stylised, languorous and, yes, horny choreography is so much more electrifying in the stocking-clad flesh, and this production's choreographers, Gary Chryst and Ann Reinking, do full justice to Fosse's crisp lines, staccato rhythms and finger-clicking cool.

Chicago, you surely know, is Kander and Ebb's tongue-in-chic evocation of vaudeville and satire on the dubious practices of the American justice system and the media, wrapped around the kiss-and-tell tale of foxy Roxie Hart (Claire Taylor), the nightclub singer who kills her lover, and Velma Kelly (Rachel Stanley), the double-murderess who jealously competes for press coverage. Their fate lies in the dapper moves and slick patter of Billy Flynn (Cavin Cornwall), the lawyer with the power to transfer them from death row to stardom.

Taylor is the voluptuous, vamping one, Rita Hayworth to Stanley's Annie Lennox. Taylor is saucy and sassy, Stanley icy yet fiery, while the twinkling Cornwall has a voice and demeanour as smooth as velvet.

All that, and All That Jazz too. It will prompt serious retail therapy at Ann Summers in High Ousegate.

Updated: 11:26 Thursday, October 28, 2004