“He Had It Coming”

Posted on March 29, 2003 in War

I finally got around to seeing Chicago. I’ve had the original cast album for years, so I was singing along with most of the tunes.

During the “Cell Block Tango” number, I couldn’t help but think how George W. Bush and the propagandists belong up there with the Six Merry Murderesses of the Cook County Jail:

• I took the shotgun down from the wall and fired two warning shots. Into his head.
  
• Then he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times.
  
• It wasn’t until later, when I was washing the blood off my hand that I even realized that they were dead.
  
• I guess you could say that we had artistic differences. He saw himself alive and I saw him dead.
  
• He tried to kill my daddy so I bombed the hell out of his television station. I bombed the hell out of it until it was nothing more than a smoking hole.

See how well he fits in?

And consider how the refrain echoes the justification for this war:

He had it coming,

He had it coming,

He only had himself to blame.

So far, GWB and the media have given us the old razzle dazzle. Plenty of people have bought it. And that’s show biz, folks.

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Was it the long hunger, the deprivation because Hollywood did not want to take a chance with a musical? Or is Chicago a truly great motion picture?

I think it was both that moved me tonight. I knew all the tunes from the scratchy CD that we keep upstairs. But Chicago allows magic to step off the screen and invites the audience to sing along. I could endure many more viewings, cynicism and all!

I hope Hollywood gets the hint and tries more musicals now that Chicago has shown that the potential of the art form is alive and well. It’s been a long time since Cabaret.