Chicago has plenty of razzle-dazzle, drama and high kicking – and it’s a sell-out in Kent.

Based on real events, the classic musical has Roxie Hart and a cell block rival, the double murderer Velma Kelly, bringing some roaring songs to the Marlowe Theatre stage.

The show stars Jessie Wallace as Mama Morton, “matron” of the jail, and John Partridge as Billy.

Jessie is best known as Kat Slater in EastEnders, but has also played Pat Phoenix in The Road To Coronation Street, for which she was nominated for a Bafta and theatre roles in Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be and Stepping Out.

Her fellow former EastEnder, John, who played Christian Clarke, is a stage veteran, with musical theatre credits including Cats, Miss Saigon and A Chorus Line. He was also a judge on BBC1’s Over the Rainbow, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s search for Dorothy in The Wizard Of Oz.

Joining them will be Hayley Tamaddon as Roxie. Hayley is a former Coronation Street star and winner of the fifth series of ITV1’s Dancing On Ice.

Chicago has a sassy score that includes All That Jazz, Razzle Dazzle and When You’re Good To Mama. The show has picked up a clutch of awards from the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical and the 1998 Critics Circle Drama Award for Best Musical. It’s also received six Tony, two Olivier, one Grammy, two Baftas and six Academy Awards.

It is also now playing in New York, where it holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and second longest running musical in Broadway history.

Chicago is at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre from Monday, October 24, to Saturday, October 29.