Queen Latifah

Set It Off and Chicago make a revealing pair. As Cleo in the former, Latifah is part of a friendship whose loyalties give the heist story its emotional weight. As Mama Morton in the latter, she turns authority and transactional charm into a sharply defined musical character. The performances ask for different balances of physical presence, humour and feeling. Choose both for evidence that her command of a stage can be adapted to an ensemble drama as well as to a deliberately theatrical screen world.