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Jon Gruden coaches the Raiders against the Bears on Sunday. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Raiders coach Jon Gruden apologized Sunday for a 2011 email, uncovered by the Wall Street Journal, in which he used a racist trope to describe NFLPA executive director leader DeMaurice Smith’s lips.

LAS VEGAS — Raiders coach Jon Gruden apologized Sunday for a 2011 email, uncovered by the Wall Street Journal, in which he used a racist trope to describe NFLPA executive director leader DeMaurice Smith’s lips.

“I’m not a racist,” Gruden said in a brief press conference after losing 20-9 to the Bears. “I can’t tell you how sick I am. I apologize again to De Smith … I had no racial intention with those remarks at all. I’m not like that at all. I apologize. I don’t want to keep addressing it.”

Raiders players said Gruden met with the team before the story was published and told them about the emails, which also included Gruden — who wasn’t coaching then — ripping commissioner Roger Goodell during the lockout.

“I’ve been around this guy for three years now … He’s never rubbed me a certain way, that type of way …” running back Josh Jacobs said. “I definitely trust him. It was 10 years ago. People grow.”

Quarterback Derek Carr said he and his teammates told Gruden they had his back.

“He told us, ‘Men, learn from my mistake,'” Carr said.

The controversy had nothing to do with the Raiders falling flat Sunday, Jacobs said.

“The last couple weeks we’ve been coming out flat, starting early in the game,” he said.

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Rookie running back Khalil Herbert (24) had 18 carries for 75 yards in the Bears’ 20-9 victory over the Raiders on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. | David Becker/AP

With David Montgomery on injured reserve, Damien Williams (16 carries, 64 yards, one TD) and rookie Khalil Herbert (18-75) ably filled the void — just like the good offenses do. “There’s a little bit of an identity going on right now,” coach Matt Nagy said of the run game.

LAS VEGAS — When Bears coach Matt Nagy referenced Kareem Hunt replacing Spencer Ware for the Chiefs in 2017 in response to a question about filling David Montgomery’s role in the offense, you could feel Bears fans collectively rolling their eyes.

Nagy’s offense is not the Chiefs offense. And the idea of the Bears just plugging in one weapon to replace another like many good NFL offenses do didn’t really compute. The Bears aren’t there yet.

But lo and behold, the Bears pulled it off against a capable Raiders defense in a 20-9 victory Sunday at Allegiant Stadium. Damien Williams (16 carries, 64 yards, one touchdown) and rookie Khalil Herbert (18-75) were a productive, complementary tandem as the Bears rushed for 143 yards on 37 carries.

The last time Montgomery was out, the Bears turned to Cordarrelle Patterson (12-30) and Artavis Pierce (3-9) and had 17 carries for 41 yards (2.4 avg.) in a 19-13 loss to the Vikings at Soldier Field last Nov. 20. This is progress.

“I know [Montgomery] is at home now watching this and he’s proud,” Nagy said. “For Damien Williams to step up and have 16 carries. For Khalil Herbert to come in as a rookie and run the ball like he did — that’s impressive.

“It talks to the offensive line and the tight ends. It talks a lot to those running backs. It talks a lot to our coaches for getting those guys ready. I think you guys [reporters] would probably agree there’s a little bit of an identity going on right now.”

Indeed, the Bears success on the ground against the Raiders was a testament to not only the Bears’ depth at running back, but arguably more so to their offense, which has placed a greater emphasis on establishing the run with offensive coordinator Bill Lazor calling plays. The Bears not only used three tight ends, but even used offensive lineman Alex Bars as a third tackle to facilitate the run, including on Williams’ four-yard touchdown run.

It was one thing to do that against the Lions. Doing it against the Raiders is a step further in the right direction.

“I just think Bill Lazor has done a phenomenal job to get guys in rhythm and be able to feel who’s hot and where we’re at,” Nagy said. “The other coaches on the staff being able to help out — it’s a group deal. Everybody included is what makes this special. Some of that stuff is where we feel like we have a strength.”

It all came together particularly on the Bears’ 16-play, 86-yard scoring drive that used up 8:17 of the clock and gave them a 14-3 lead with 1:56 left in the first half. Herbert and Williams each had four carries for 23 yards in the drive, with Williams scoring from the 4-yard line on a nifty spin move that had even Justin Fields envious.

“When I saw that, I just stood there and I was like, ‘Yo, that was crazy.’ I wish I could do that,” Fields said. “That’s all I’ve got to say about that. I wish I could do that.”

Williams has played this role before with the Chiefs in 2017 and 2018. But Herbert’s success might be more promising. The sixth-round draft pick from Virginia Tech came into game with three rushes for seven yards.

“Man, I was telling him all game — especially coming out in the second half — ‘This is on you now,'” Williams said. “I gave my first blows in the first half. Now it’s your turn to get your blows in.’ As a young kid coming into this environment, he held himself great.

“He’s a very consistent person and I feel like if he continues to do that, he’s going to have a long, long future.”

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Bears linebacker Roquan Smith was flagged in the end zone Sunday. | David Becker/AP

Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith didn’t agree with the flag he received for unnecessary roughness Sunda

LAS VEGAS — Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith didn’t agree with the flag he received for unnecessary roughness Sunday after he hit receiver Willie Snead in the end zone on second-and-goal in the fourth quarter.

“I thought that was BS,” he said after the Bears’ 20-9 win at Allegiant Stadium. “I was like, ‘unnecessary?’ …. I’ll have to look back at it but I don’t think I put my helmet in there. I think I put my shoulder in and then they called it.

“And so it’s a flag, but it is what it is.”

Injury update

Starting right tackle Germain Ifedi hurt his knee in the second quarter and didn’t return. He was replaced by tackle Elijah Wilkinson. The Bears like Wilkinson better on the right side than the left, but losing Ifedi would be a blow to a thin unit.

Second-round pick Teven Jenkins is on injured reserve after having back surgery. So is Larry Borom, who hurt his ankle in the opener. He is eligible to return whenever healthy.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears ruled out outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu out with a pec injury. Inside linebacker Caleb Johnson hurt his knee on kickoff coverage in the second quarter and did not return.

Bears coach Matt Nagy said they’ll be evaluated Monday.

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Quarterback Justin Fields celebrates the Bears’ win Sunday. | Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images

At times, Bears fans were so loud that it felt like a home game.

LAS VEGAS — Visiting for the first time to watch their favorite team, Bears fans occupied maybe 40% of Allegiant Stadium during Sunday’s 20-9 win against the Raiders. At times, they were so loud that it felt like a home game.

“I”m not used to playing away games where you have a crowd that can rival the home crowd,” said tight end Jesper Horsted, who caught a second-quarter touchdown. “And especially for this game, they were making so much noise, which really disturbs the opposing offense. And you saw a lot of penalties that are caused solely because of that.”

Bears coach Matt Nagy talks often about Bears fans who travel en masse.

“But [Sunday] it felt … it was impactful,” he said.

The feeling was “amazing,” safety Eddie Jackson said.

“It was crazy to really see how our fans travel and come on the road,” he said. “They helped us a lot. They kept us fired up, kept us pumped up. Just to hear the support out there that we have from the fans, we really appreciate.”

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Zach LaVine called it a good lesson learned, as the same Cavaliers team that the Bulls blew out of the building on Tuesday, showed up with a different attitude and physicality on Sunday.

CLEVELAND – J.B. Bickerstaff had a definite message to his team heading into Sunday night’s rematch with the Bulls.

“They need to feel us,” the Cavaliers coach said, referring to the idea that young teams could send a bad message to the opposition in the preseason if they appear soft.

Bickerstaff’s concern?

If a team appears to be a pushover in exhibition play, that tag could carry over into the regular season, especially against teams within the division.

Getting run out of the gym against the Bulls in Chicago on Tuesday by 36 points was unacceptable – preseason or not.

So there was definitely a different energy on Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage Field House, even in the Bulls pulling it out late, 102-101.

Good thing for the Bulls, Billy Donovan doesn’t have that exact preseason mindset.

Not that visiting coach necessarily disagreed with Bickerstaff, but this Bulls roster has Donovan operating in a different head space. Not only was Donovan’s roster put together to win games, but to make a dent in the bigger picture.

“The way I look at it is with [executive vice president of basketball operations] Arturas [Karnisovas] and [general manager] Mark [Eversley] coming in, and talking to them, the way I look at it is can we really build a sustainable culture? Are we playing to a standard? Are we building a culture?” Donovan said. “The guys that were here last year, you kind of started that process, and then the roster flipped, so we’re back to that process now. What kind of standard are we going to play to? Those are the kinds of things you’re battling towards.

“We have to establish the culture more so than, ‘Hey, we won tonight, we lost tonight.’ Maybe you win some games because you’re talented, but is what we’re doing sustainable? Can we be a sustainable team? Like, ‘OK, we won tonight, but this is not going to be sustainable against the highest-level teams.’ So what are we doing to build something that is sustainable to compete at the very highest level.”

What they’ve been doing early in this preseason was playing defense at a high level, staying relatively turnover free, and sharing the ball.

Midway through the fourth quarter – or when the regulars were basically done playing – the Bulls had allowed the Cavs to shoot 47% from the field, while looking very different in the ball movement department that was displayed in the first two games.

The starters finished their night with nine assists, turning it over 11 times.

But even on a night in which the play was less than stellar, an average showing by the Bulls (3-0) is better than a Cleveland team trying to throw haymakers.

Still, lesson learned.

“You can learn from every game,” guard Zach LaVine said. “We didn’t come out with the same aggressiveness on offense or defense, and that showed. It doesn’t matter who you played, these are all NBA players. They came out the more physical team.

“And that’s on us.”

The one highlight of the game? Chicago’s own Ayo Dosunmu riding in on the horse and playing hero. Not only did the former Illinois standout score nine points in the seven minutes down the stretch, but hit the basket to put the Bulls up three with 13.8 seconds left.

“He doesn’t have any fear at all,” LaVine said of the rookie. “He’s stone cold. Doesn’t care about the situation. He’s going to go in there and play his heart out. He pretty much won us the game.”

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The Raiders’ Quinton Jefferson celebrates a sack of Bears quarterback Justin Fields by teammate Yannick Ngakoue on Sunday. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Solid running game takes a lot of pressure off the rookie quarterback in a 20-9 victory over the Raiders.

Here’s a recipe for long-term success for the Bears: Play smothering defense, run the ball well, save Justin Fields’ life.

Not necessarily in that order. Actually, not at all in that order.

It might not be the most exciting approach, might not fulfill your deep desire to see the very athletic Fields do his thing, but it can to lead to a victory and an upright, breathing, not dribbling-down-his-chin rookie quarterback.

The moral of the Bears’ 20-9 win over the Raiders on Sunday is that just because you’re in Las Vegas doesn’t mean you should gamble with your future’s future. It took a while for the message to be delivered. There was a crushing first-quarter hit on Fields that brought a wince to him, to his team and to his many admirers in Chicago. He also had to leave the game briefly in the second quarter with a leg injury.

This can’t be overstated: Stop that, Bears.

But with Fields eventually walking away in one piece, the result and that message were all that mattered on this day.

Fields, who finally was handed the starting quarterback job midweek, got his second straight victory. He was able to get it because rookie Khalil Herbert and veteran Damien Williams, filling in for an injured David Montgomery, combined for 139 rushing yards. Those yards made life miserable for the Raiders and helped lead to a solid advantage in possession time for the Bears.

Fields completed 12 of 20 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown. He averaged a puny 5.6 yards per attempt, but that was much more a footnote than a story.

Head coach Matt Nagy will tell you that offensive coordinator Bill Lazor is calling the plays now but that the Bears’ game plans are very much a collegial production. All I know is that whichever coach is in charge of making sure Fields remains safe needs to get a little better at that.

The Bears brought in extra protection to help an offensive line that needs lots of it. The line can run block, but it wouldn’t want to put pass blocking on its resume. Until it learns to do that, a vanilla offense is the best approach.

Fields got the wind knocked out him on a big hit to the ribs by Raiders safety Johnathan Abram in the first quarter. It was scary. He looked vulnerable and somehow reduced. But he bounced back.

“I’m going to put myself out there to win games,” Fields said. “That’s what (fans) can expect from me, just every play, every game. I’m going to give it my all.”

“That son of a buck is tough,” Nagy said.

He is. But there’s no need to prove it. If the Bears are going to continue to be successful, it’s incumbent on them to keep running the ball in order to keep Fields out of harm’s way.

He was at his best in the fourth quarter, after the Raiders had cut the lead to 14-9. He had a huge completion on a third-and-12 to Darnell Mooney, putting the ball in a window the size of a bucket for a first down. It led to field goal and breathing room. Fields will grow from that play confidence-wise, and, eventually, opposing defenses will have to honor his ability to make plays.

Some day, he might even be in a position to take full advantage of his talents. That day isn’t here yet.

“Once we get rolling like that, we’re a scary offense,” said Williams, who scored a touchdown.

He might be getting ahead of himself, maybe a few football fields ahead of himself, but you understand the enthusiasm. The Raiders presented more problems for the Bears’ offense than the Lions had the week before. In that regard, this victory was worth more. Coaches like to talk about their teams’ identity. Hopefully, Nagy was paying attention. This should be the Bears’ identity until general manager Ryan Pace finds him an offensive line. Or until another Bears GM finds another Bears head coach an offensive line.

If the team continues to play good defense, life will be a lot easier for Fields. It was soooooo hard to gain ground against that wall Sunday. The Raiders tried and tried. Over and over again, Khalil Mack and his teammates said no. If you’re a fan of offense, watching Derek Carr try to move the ball was excruciating. If you’re a fan of the Bears, it was beautiful.

There are still a lot of spills on a lot of the Bears’ aisles. They continue to struggle with on-field discipline. Dumb penalties are a theme five games into the season. That will eventually bite them if it continues.

But the Bears are 3-2 after two straight victories. No one is thinking about penalties.

All anyone is thinking about is Fields’ continued well-being.

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Bears outside linebacker Khalil Mack tackles quarterback Nathan Peterman on Sunday. | Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

This was the Bears defense we’ve been waiting for — the kind that can take over a game, at home or on the road. One that punches back.

LAS VEGAS — As Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder prepared to put on one of Sin City’s biggest boxing matches in years Saturday night, Bears coach Matt Nagy gathered his team at its Lake Las Vegas hotel. Sunday’s game against the Raiders, he told them, was going to be a brawl.

“This was going to be a fistfight in a back alley,” Nagy told his team.

The Bears were ready. In one of the most meaningful wins in Nagy’s three-and-a-half year coaching career, rookie quarterback Justin Fields proved his toughness over and over again. The Bears’ run game bullied the Raiders even with David Montgomery on injured reserve. But most importantly, the Bears defense hammered the NFL’s top-ranked passing offense in a 20-9 win at Allegiant Stadium.

“It was huge,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “Not many people had us doing what we did.”

This was the Bears defense we’ve been waiting for — the kind that can take over a game, at home or on the road. One that punches back.

“We just wanted to dominate,” safety Eddie Jackson said.

They did.

The Raiders averaged 4.3 yards per play, the fewest the Bears have allowed all year.

Five of the Raiders’ 10 drives Sunday yielded eight yards or less. Two ended on downs. In the second quarter, inside linebacker Roquan Smith stuffed running back Josh Jacobs on fourth-and-1. On the stop that sealed the game, the Bears, up eight with two minutes to play, forced a Derek Carr incompletion on fourth-and-5.

Carr, who led the NFL in passing yards entering Sunday’s game, went 22-for-35 for 206 yards and an interception. His 67.1 passer rating was the 15th worst of his career, in which he started 115 games.

Carr was sacked three times. Khalil Mack, whom the Raiders traded to the Bears for a pile of draft picks in 2018, had one — and a second on a two-point conversion that didn’t count statistically.

“He made them regret everything,” Jackson said. “Made them regret not wanting to keep him. You know, Mack’s our leader. He’s had games like this. We fuel off that.”

The Bears said Mack was unavailable to talk after the game. Mack made no secret of his motivation to play his old team, particularly after he was practically shut out against the Raiders two years ago this week in London.

Jackson said the Bears wanted revenge against Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who mocked “Club Dub” in his locker room speech after the Bears’ London loss.

“Fuel to the fire,” he said.

Nagy pointed to the long, angry airplane ride home to the States.

“I don’t care what anybody says, you remember that …” Nagy said. “[Mack] was part of that and he understands that. I think all of our guys, we talked about, it’s the mindset of making sure our guys know that we weren’t coming in here to play – this was going to be a fight. He knew that.

“And so Khalil’s in a leadership role to make sure other guys see how he plays in this moment.”

Playing with inside linebacker Danny Trevathan in a part-time role but without injured Akiem Hicks, the Bears seem to have found a formula — although one as old as the franchise itself.

“I feel like that’s been a Bears thing,” Jackson said. “That’s Chicago Bears — the defense go out there and play, try to hold them to no points.”

Or nine. Only three times in the Nagy era had the Bears allowed fewer points than the Raiders’ nine. That dominance, more than any other reason, is why the Bears are in a markedly different place after Sunday’s win than they were just eight days earlier.

Nagy was asked what he learned about his team since their embarrassing loss to the Browns in Week 3.

“We fight, plain and simple,” Nagy said. “I don’t make it hard. I just make it real simple. And these guys, they fight.”

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Fields overcame various maladies to win his second game as a starter. | AP Photos

Fields appeared to be ill in the first quarter and hurt his knee in the second, but he closed out a big win for the Bears.

LAS VEGAS — You can’t lose with Justin Fields. He’s Bears-proof.

They tried, of course, and he overcame all their dysfunction Sunday to beat the Raiders 20-9 for a win that could be his first step toward making this more than merely a transition season for the Bears.

That’s why they drafted him, whether or not they realized it. He can offset a poorly planned offensive line, musical-chairs play calling and completely confounding misuse of timeouts. The Bears can do everything wrong, and Fields is talented enough to make it right.

That’s an incredible responsibility to put on a rookie quarterback making his third start, but it looks like they picked the right guy.

It was touch and go from the start in Las Vegas.

Fields appeared to be ill on the sideline after taking a hit in the back at the end of the Bears’ second possession, and at one point a staffer put a trash can in front of him as though he was about to vomit.

After several minutes of coach Matt Nagy and head trainer Andre Tucker tending to him, Fields went back in the game and resumed the mad scramble that is his life in the pocket.

On one of those scrambles, Raiders defensive end Yannick Ngakoue grabbed at his feet and caused Fields’ left knee to bend the wrong direction.

The Raiders sacked him twice and hit him three other times in the first half, which ended with Ngakoue blasting him the moment he finished his drop-back. The Bears were at the Raiders’ 44-yard line and hoping to sneak a field goal before halftime, but that ended it.

The Bears began that drive in favorable position at their own 40 with 50 seconds left, except they had no timeouts. They burned one less than eight minutes into the game after giving up a 29-yard pass, used another on second-and-one at the Raiders’ 11 and were forced to take one on a point-after to avoid a delay-of-game penalty after confusion amid trying to get the right players in the game.

Fields fought through it with the help of a strong running game to lead two touchdown drives in the second quarter. He ended the first by zipping a pass to No. 5 tight end Jesper Horsted, who was only active because other players were out.

That’s another deficiency Fields is trying to navigate: The Bears’ tight ends have had negligible impact in the passing game.

Fields finished 12 of 20 for 111 yards and a touchdown for a season-high 91.9 passer rating and ran three times for four yards.

To the Bears’ credit, the one thing they’ve done for Fields is give him this defense.

While they’d rather move past the score-17-points-and-pray-it’s-enough approach, it’s nice to know the defense is still strong enough to make that plan viable if necessary. It’s incredibly helpful cover as Fields finds his footing.

The Raiders, who came in as the No. 9 scoring team in the NFL, could barely move the ball. They had five three-and-outs and made it into Bears territory just three times in nine possessions.

It was the 29th time in the last four seasons the Bears held an opponent under 20 points.

When the Raiders finally broke through for their first touchdown with 9:05 left to cut the Bears’ lead to 14-9, the pressure was on Fields to answer. On third-and-12 from his own 27-yard line, with the Raiders on the cusp of wresting control of the game, he threaded a pass to Darnell Mooney for 13 yards despite four defensive backs guarding the first-down line.

The Bears kept going and got a 46-yard field goal from Cairo Santos to deaden the Raiders’ push for a comeback and take an eight-point lead.

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The Chicago Bears went on the road and beat the Las Vegas Raiders by a score of 20-9 in Week 5. It was a hard-fought game, overall, and the Bears now move to 3-2 after winning their second in a row. Justin Fields got his third career start against the Raiders and finished with a […] Chicago Bears: One clear offensive aspect led to win over Raiders – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Kevin Earley (from left), Amanda Rose, Allison Blackwell, Joseph Anthony Byrd and Meghan Murphy make up the ensemble of “The World Goes ‘Round.” | Liz Lauren

The five singers in Marriott Theatre musical pour emotion into numbers from “Chicago,” “Cabaret,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and other hits.

When the lights come up on the Marriott Theatre’s “The World Goes ‘Round,” the stage is in artfully curated disarray.

An upright piano tilted on end leans in one corner like an abandoned toy. A battered trunk and a jumble of fabric is piled in another. Red velvet curtains are draped high above, their grandeur diminished by unraveling threads that evoke a long period of disuse. A hodge-podge of ropes, sandbags and lighting fixtures — chandeliers, disco balls, candelabras — hangs above, as does a random crescent moon big enough to sit on.

That seemingly abandoned stage is quickly revived in director-choreographer Marcia Milgrom-Dodge’s production, running through Nov. 7 at the Lincolnshire venue.

The musical revue includes some two dozen songs from composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, drawing on their considerable catalogue of hits — “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman” among them.

The nearly 45-year-old title tune’s relentless refrain is an apt opener. When Allison Blackwell begins the song, you can hear both the cruelty and the euphoria in the lyrics. The number ties both emotions to the same thing: the inexorable movement of a planet whose orbit remains relentlessly dependable, no matter the tragedies playing out on its surface.

Dodge’s five-person cast reanimates scenic designer Christopher Rhoton’s splendidly abandoned theater set with panache.

Take, for instance, Joseph Anthony Byrd’s explosive “Mr. Cellophane.” Usually the song from “Chicago” is a comedic performance by hapless cuckold, played as much for laughs as anything else. Byrd starts out that way, but rather than ending with a whimper, he escalates to a roar. “Mr. Cellophane” turns into a blazing anthem for the habitually unseen, undercounted and disregarded. It’s glorious.

Kevin Earley’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is equally intense. The Spider Woman character is a metaphor for death as the ultimate seducer, or so she was in Kander and Ebb’s Tony-winning 1992 masterpiece.

Dodge has Earley don an aggressively large ballgown, its skirt as large and round as a cathedral bell. As he sweeps across a stage bathed in red light, there’s menace and deliverance in the ominous lyrics.

Also memorable is the melancholic “I Don’t Remember You/Not a Day Goes By” duet. Earley and Byrd capture the ancient dynamic between the wanted and the wanter, Byrd heart-wrenching as he opens his heart, Earley turning away in search of someone else.

Dodge knows when to lighten the mood as well. Amanda Rose’s “Arthur in the Afternoon” is a sex-positive hoot with Rose embracing the zaniness as she peels off her persnickety white gloves and preaches the health benefits of squeezing in Arthur on the regular.

Nor does Meghan Murphy disappoint. With “Colored Lights,” she creates a bittersweet wonderland peopled by lost loves and impossibly romantic standards. She also shows off her Mae-West-meets-Carol-Burnett comedy chops alongside Blackwell in the campy “The Grass Is Always Greener.”

Music Director Ryan T. Nelson and longtime Marriott conductor/music supervisor Patti Garwood create a marvelous soundscape. Little touches from Garwood’s seven-piece orchestra (the insistent thrum of bass underlining Blackwell’s yearning, soaring “Maybe This Time”) and large ones (the manic, jangly discord of “Money, Money”) amplify the emotion packed into the lyrics.

Dodge’s choreography channels Bob Fosse (Rose in “All That Jazz”) as well Fred and Ginger (Byrd and Rose in “Shoes Dance”), playing to the strengths of her cast. Rose and Byrd are clearly the Fred and Ginger of the group, but the five can sell a kick line with verve to spare.

The one rather glaring flaw in the production? It’s finale, “New York, New York.” For the love of Pete. As we celebrate Chicago’s re-opening, surely something from “Chicago” would be more appropriate.

Catey Sullivan is a local freelance writer.

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