Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
The world premiere of the musical was a Broadway tryout from April 8, 1975 to May 3, 1975, at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia.[1][2] The original Broadway production opened on June 3, 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre[3] and ran for 936 performances, until August 27, 1977.[4] Bob Fosse directed and choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. It debuted in the West End in 1979, where it ran for 600 performances. Chicago was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End.
The 1996 Broadway production holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. It is the second longest-running show ever to run on Broadway, behind only The Phantom of the Opera. Chicago surpassed Cats on November 23, 2014, when it played its 7,486th performance.[5] The West End revival became the longest-running American musical in West End history. The ongoing 1996 revival of Chicago is the longest-running show currently on Broadway. Chicago has been staged in numerous productions around the world, and has toured extensively in the United States and United Kingdom. The 2002 film adaptation of the musical won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
History
The musical Chicago is based on a play of the same name by reporter and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins, who was assigned to cover the 1924 trials of accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. In the early 1920s, Chicago's press and public became riveted by the subject of homicides committed by women. Several high-profile cases arose, which generally involved women killing their lovers or husbands. These cases were tried against a backdrop of changing views of women in the jazz age, and a long string of acquittals by Cook County juries of female murderers (juries at the time were all male, and convicted murderers generally faced death by hanging). A lore arose that, in Chicago, feminine or attractive women could not be convicted. The Chicago Tribune generally favored the prosecution's case, while still presenting the details of these women's lives. Its rivals at the Hearst papers were more pro-defendant, and employed what were derisively called "sob-sisters" – women reporters who focused on the plight, attractiveness, redemption, or grace of the female defendants. Regardless of stance, the press covered several of these women as celebrities.[6]
Annan, the model for the character of Roxie Hart, was 23 when she was accused of the April 3, 1924[7] murder of Harry Kalstedt, who served as the basis for the Fred Casely character. The Tribune reported that Annan played the foxtrot record Hula Lou over and over for two hours before calling her husband to say she killed a man who "tried to make love to her". Her husband Albert Annan inspired the character, Amos Hart. Albert was an auto mechanic who bankrupted himself to defend his wife, only for her to publicly dump him the day after she was acquitted. Velma Kelly is based on Gaertner, who was a cabaret singer, and society divorcée. The body of Walter Law was discovered slumped over the steering wheel of Gaertner's abandoned car on March 12, 1924. Two police officers testified that they had seen a woman getting into the car and shortly thereafter heard gunshots. A bottle of gin and an automatic pistol were found on the floor of the car. Lawyers William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien were models for a composite character in Chicago, Billy Flynn. Just days apart, separate juries acquitted both women.[8]
Watkins' sensational columns documenting these trials proved so popular that she wrote a play based on them. The show received both good box-office sales and newspaper notices and was mounted on Broadway in 1926, running 172 performances. Cecil B. DeMille produced a silent film version, Chicago (1927), starring former Mack Sennett bathing beauty Phyllis Haver as Roxie Hart. It was later remade as Roxie Hart (1942) starring Ginger Rogers, but in this version, Roxie was accused of murder without having really committed it, due to content restrictions on Hollywood films of the era.
In the 1960s, Gwen Verdon read the play and asked her husband, Bob Fosse, about the possibility of creating a musical adaptation. Fosse approached playwright Watkins numerous times to buy the rights, but she repeatedly declined; by this point she may have regretted that Annan and Gaertner had been allowed to walk free, and that her treatment of them should not be glamorized.[7] Nonetheless, upon her death in 1969, her estate sold the rights to producer Richard Fryer, Verdon, and Fosse.[7]John Kander and Fred Ebb began work on the musical score, modeling each number on a traditional vaudeville number or a vaudeville performer. This format made explicit the show's comparison between "justice", "show-business", and contemporary society. Ebb and Fosse penned the book of the musical, and Fosse also directed and choreographed.
Synopsis
Act I
Velma Kelly is a vaudevillian who welcomes the audience to tonight's show ("All That Jazz"). Interplayed with the opening number, the scene cuts to February 14, 1928, in the bedroom of chorus girl Roxie Hart, where she murders Fred Casely as he attempts to break off an affair with her.
Roxie convinces her husband Amos that the victim was a burglar, and Amos agrees to take the blame. Roxie expresses her appreciation of her husband's willingness to do anything for her ("Funny Honey"). However, when the police mention the deceased's name, Amos belatedly realizes that Roxie has lied to him. With both Roxie and Amos furious at each other for the other's betrayal, Roxie confesses and is arrested. She is sent to the women's block in the Cook County Jail, where several women accused of killing their lovers are held ("Cell Block Tango"); among the inmates is Velma Kelly, revealing herself to have been involved in the death of her husband and sister after she caught them having sex, though she denies committing the act on account of blacking out from the sight. The block is presided over by Matron "Mama" Morton, whose system of taking bribes ("When You're Good to Mama") perfectly suits her clientele. She has helped Velma become the media's top murderer-of-the-week and is acting as a booking agent for Velma's big return to vaudeville.
Velma is not happy to see Roxie, who is stealing not only her limelight but also her lawyer, Billy Flynn. Roxie convinces Amos to pay for Billy Flynn to be her lawyer ("A Tap Dance"), though Amos lacks the funds. Eagerly awaited by his all-woman clientele, Billy sings his anthem, complete with a chorus of fan dancers ("All I Care About"). Billy takes Roxie's case before realizing Amos doesn't have the money; to make up the difference, he turns the case into a media circus and rearranges her story for consumption by sympathetic tabloid columnist Mary Sunshine ("A Little Bit of Good"), hoping to sell proceeds in an auction. Roxie's press conference turns into a ventriloquist act, with Billy dictating a new version of the truth ("We Both Reached for the Gun") to the reporters while Roxie mouths the words.
Roxie becomes the most popular celebrity in Chicago, as she boastfully proclaims while planning for her future career in vaudeville ("Roxie"). As Roxie's fame grows, Velma's notoriety subsides, and in an act of desperation she tries to talk Roxie into recreating the sister act ("I Can't Do It Alone"). Roxie turns her down, only to find her own headlines replaced by the latest sordid crime of passion ("I Can't Do It Alone (Reprise)"). Separately, Roxie and Velma realize there is no one they can count on but themselves ("My Own Best Friend"), and Roxie decides that being pregnant in prison would put her back on the front page.
Act II
Velma returns to introduce the opening act, resentful of Roxie's manipulation of the system ("I Know a Girl") and ability to seduce a doctor into saying Roxie is pregnant; as Roxie emerges, she sings gleefully of the future of her unborn (nonexistent) child ("Me and My Baby"). Amos proudly claims paternity, but still, nobody notices him, and Billy exposes holes in Roxie's story by noting that she and Amos had not had sex in four months, meaning if she were pregnant, the child was not Amos's, in hopes that Amos will divorce her and look like a villain, which Amos almost does ("Mr. Cellophane"). Velma tries to show Billy all the tricks she has planned for her trial ("When Velma Takes The Stand"), which Roxie treats skeptically. Roxie, upset with being treated like a "common criminal" and considering herself a celebrity, has a heated argument with Billy and fires him; Billy warns her that her kind of celebrity is fleeting and that she would be just as famous hanging from a noose. At that moment, Roxie witnesses one of her fellow inmates, a Hungarian woman who insisted on her innocence but could not speak English and whose public lawyer refused to defend her, become the first woman to be executed in Chicago in decades ("Hungarian Rope Trick").
The trial date arrives, and the now freshly terrified Roxie runs back to Billy, who calms Roxie by suggesting she will be fine so long as she makes a show of the trial ("Razzle Dazzle"). Billy uses Amos as a pawn, turning around and insisting that Amos is actually the father of Roxie's child. As Roxie recounts Billy's carefully crafted false narrative of the night of Fred's murder (with Fred re-appearing on stage in flashback), she steals all of Velma's schtick, down to the rhinestone garter, to the dismay of Mama and Velma ("Class"). As promised, Billy gets Roxie acquitted, but just as the verdict is announced, some even more sensational crime pulls the press away, and Roxie's fleeting celebrity life is over. Billy leaves, done with the case, admitting that he only did it for the money. Amos tries to get Roxie to come home and forget the ordeal, but she is more concerned with the end of her brief run of fame and admits she isn't pregnant, at which point a fed up Amos leaves her.
The final scene cuts to a Chicago vaudeville theater, where Roxie and Velma (acquitted off-stage) are performing a new act in which they sing bittersweetly about modern life ("Nowadays"). The former Mary Sunshine, revealed during the trial actually to be a man in drag, takes his natural male form as a pushy vaudeville promoter, shaping Roxie and Velma's dance ("Hot Honey Rag") to make it as sexy as possible. The show ends with a brief finale as Roxie and Velma thank their audience ("Finale").[9]
"We Both Reached for the Gun" – Billy, Roxie, Mary and the Reporters
"Roxie" – Roxie and the Boys
"I Can't Do It Alone" – Velma
"I Can't Do It Alone (Reprise)" – Velma
"My Own Best Friend" – Roxie and Velma
"Finale Act I: All That Jazz (Reprise)" – Velma
Act 2
"Entr'acte" – Orchestra
"I Know a Girl" – Velma
"Me and My Baby" – Roxie and Company
"Mr. Cellophane" – Amos Hart
"When Velma Takes the Stand" – Velma and the Boys
"Razzle Dazzle" – Billy and Company
"Class" – Velma and Mama Morton
"Nowadays" - Velma and Roxie
"Hot Honey Rag" – Orchestra
"Finale Act II: All That Jazz (Reprise)" – Company
† In the 1975 Original Broadway Production and its Playbill, there are a few contradicting song lists. Songs such as "R.S.V.P" and "Keep It Hot" which were instrumental pieces in the "Finale" were removed from the licensable music, but were included in original production and script. Other songs such as "Ten Percent" sung by a deleted character who was Velma's agent, and "No" sung by Roxie and Boys were cut soon into the production and only appear on demo recordings and in the original Playbill, but are not in the original script. Other cut songs from the show were "Rose Colored Glasses" a different version of "We Both Reached for the Gun", "Pansy Eyes", and "Loopin' the Loop".[10][11]
A vaudevillian and murderess who is on trial for killing her cheating husband and sister. She is represented by Billy Flynn and competes with Roxie Hart for him. Alto
Roxie's faithful and good-natured but simple husband whom nobody pays attention to. He spends most of the show trying to make Roxie take interest in him or even just acknowledge his existence. Baritone
According to Fred Ebb, he wrote the book in a vaudeville style because "the characters were performers. Every musical moment in the show was loosely modeled on someone else: Roxie was Helen Morgan, Velma was Texas Guinan, Billy Flynn was Ted Lewis, Mama Morton was Sophie Tucker." Composer John Kander elaborates that the reason the show was called a vaudeville "is because many of the songs we wrote are related to specific performers like those you mentioned, and Eddie Cantor and Bert Williams as well."[13]
It was through the initial production, and not the writing, that many of the "traditional" Chicago staging conventions were developed:
The double snap in "Razzle Dazzle" was added as an afterthought at the suggestion of Ebb to Kander. Kander explains: "I remember when we wrote "Razzle Dazzle", before we took it in and played it for Bob, you [Ebb] said with absolute confidence 'Try adding a couple of finger snaps to it. Bobby will love that.' We added them...and as soon as he heard the finger snaps, he loved the song."[13] During rehearsals, "Razzle Dazzle" was originally staged as an orgy on the steps of the courthouse. Fosse was talked out of allowing this staging, when Orbach "convinced him that he was missing the Brechtian subtlety intrinsic in the number."[14]
The original finale was "Loopin' the Loop", a doubles act with Verdon and Rivera; however, "the scene seemed too much like an amateur act so Fosse asked for something more 'glamorous in pretty gowns'". The piece was cut and replaced with "Nowadays". Instrumental sections of "Loopin' the Loop" can still be heard in the Overture.[14] Two other sections termed "Keep It Hot" and "RSVP" were cut from the finale as well.
Another principal character, a theatrical agent named Henry Glassman, was played by David Rounds, whose role was to exploit the notoriety of the prisoners for his own gain. He also served as the evening's M.C. This character's role and the song "Ten Percent" was cut,[15] with the character folded into that of Matron Mama Morton, and various members of the chorus shared his M.C. duties.[16]
In a reversal of roles, Fosse decided the lyrics for "Class" were too offensive and censored Kander and Ebb's original version. One of the original lyrics "Every guy is a snot/Every girl is a twat" was restored for the 2002 film, although the entire number was cut from the final product.[17]
Productions
Original Broadway production
M. O'Haughey as Mary Sunshine and Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn in the original Broadway cast, 1976
Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville opened on June 3, 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre, and ran for a total of 936 performances, closing on August 27, 1977.[18] The opening night cast starred Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart, Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn and Barney Martin as Amos Hart. Velma Kelly had been a comparatively minor character in all versions of Chicago prior to the musical rendering. The role was fleshed out to balance Chita Rivera's role opposite Gwen Verdon's Roxie Hart.
The musical received mixed reviews. The Brechtian style of the show, which frequently dropped the fourth wall, made audiences uncomfortable. According to James Leve, "Chicago is cynical and subversive, exploiting American cultural mythologies in order to attack American celebrity culture."[19]
The show opened the same year as Michael Bennett's highly successful A Chorus Line, which beat out Chicago in both ticket sales and at the Tony Awards.[20] The show was on the verge of closing when it ran into another setback: Gwen Verdon had to have surgery on nodes in her throat after inhaling a feather during the show's finale.[21] The producers contemplated closing the show, but Liza Minnelli stepped in and offered to play the role of Roxie Hart in place of Verdon.[22][23] Her run lasted slightly over a month (August 8, 1975, through September 13, 1975),[24] boosting the show's popularity, until Gwen Verdon recuperated and returned to the show. Ann Reinking, who would go on to star in the highly successful 1996 revival[25] and choreograph that production in the style of Bob Fosse, was also a cast replacement for Roxie Hart during the show's original run.[26]
1979 West End
The first West End, London production opened at the Cambridge Theatre in April 1979 and ran for around 600 performances (having had its European premiere at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, on 23 November 1978).[27] It commenced in the West End with most of the Sheffield cast, and was directed by Peter James and choreographed by Gillian Gregory. The producers were Ray Cooney and Larry Parnes.[28][29]Jenny Logan starred as Velma Kelly, with Ben Cross as Billy, Antonia Ellis as Roxie Hart and Don Fellows as Amos Hart.[30] Ellis (Actress of the Year in a Musical) and Ben Cross (Actor of the Year in a Musical) were nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for their performances, and the musical was nominated as Musical of the Year.[31]Elizabeth Seal later replaced Ellis as Roxie Hart.[32][33]
1977 Argentina
The original Argentine production opened at the Teatro El Nacional featuring Nélida Lobato (Roxie), Ambar La Fox (Velma), Marty Cosens (Billy), Jovita Luna (Mama Morton) and Juan Carlos Thorry (Amos) as a replica of the original Broadway production. The book was adapted by Enrique Pinti and the production was directed by Wilfredo Ferran and Mike Ribas. Gene Foote choreographed the production based on the original choreography by Bob Fosse. It was produced by Alejandro Romay.
City CenterEncores! series presented Chicago in concert in May 1996.[37] The Encores! series, according to their statement, "celebrates the rarely heard works of America's most important composers and lyricists...Encores! gives three glorious scores the chance to be heard as their creators originally intended."[38]
The production was directed by Walter Bobbie with choreography "in the style of Bob Fosse" by Ann Reinking, who also reprised her previous role as Roxie Hart.[37] Also in the cast were Bebe Neuwirth as Velma Kelly, Joel Grey as Amos Hart and James Naughton as Billy Flynn.[37] The show was well-received, with Howard Kissel, reviewing for the New York Daily News writing that "This Chicago impressed me far more than the original.".[39]Ben Brantley, in his review for The New York Times, wrote " 'Make love to the audience' was another Fosse dictum. That's exactly what Ms. Reinking and her ensemble do. Chicago can still seem glibly cynical and artificially cold, especially in its weaker second act. But these performers know just how to take off the chill."[40] By May 10, 1996, there was talk of a Broadway production: "Down the block, there is a move afoot to move the Encores production of Chicago to Broadway. Rocco Landesman said that he and Fran and Barry Weissler wanted to bring the production to the Martin Beck Theater this summer."[41]
Barry and Fran Weissler brought the Encores! production to Broadway, after some revision and expansion, but retaining the spare and minimalist style in costumes and set.[42] The set design includes the presence of the band center stage in an evocation of a jury box, around and upon which the actors play some scenes. There are also chairs along the sides of this central piece, in which the actors at times sit or lounge, when not directly involved in the action. The show opened on November 14, 1996, at the
Richard Rodgers Theatre (the same theater where the original production had played)[43] with a script adapted by David Thompson,[44] eventually setting a record for recovering its initial costs faster than any other musical in history, likely due in part to the stripped-down design elements.
Unlike the original production, the revival was met with praise from critics. The CurtainUp reviewer noted, "The show garnered ecstatic reviews, enviable box office sales and enough awards to warrant a special Chicago trophy room."[42] Society had changed in light of events such as the O. J. Simpson murder case, and audiences were more receptive to the criminal-as-celebrity theme of the show.[45]
The revival of Chicago won six Tony Awards, more than any other revival in Broadway history until South Pacific won seven Tonys in 2008.[46]Chicago won for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Bebe Neuwirth, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for James Naughton, Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Ken Billington, Best Director of a Musical for Walter Bobbie and Best Choreography for Ann Reinking.[47]Chicago: The Musical has run for more than 10,000 performances[47][48] and holds the record for longest-running musical revival on Broadway.[49] Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, James Naughton, and Joel Grey returned for cameo appearances.[50]
On February 12, 1997, the Broadway production moved into the larger Shubert Theatre.[53][54] On January 29, 2003, more than six years into its run, the Broadway production moved a second time, to the Ambassador Theatre, where it has played ever since.[55] On November 23, 2014, Chicago became the second longest-running Broadway show, surpassing Cats.[47]
London revivals
Chicago playing at the West End's Cambridge Theatre in December 2010
On November 18, 1997, the revival production opened in London's West End.[56][57] Like the New York revival, it was directed by Walter Bobbie and designed by John Lee Beatty, with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse.[58] The show ran at the Adelphi Theatre for nine years until transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in April 2006.[59] The original cast of the production included German jazz singer Ute Lemper as Velma, British actress Ruthie Henshall as Roxie Hart, Nigel Planer as Amos Hart, and Henry Goodman as Billy Flynn. The production won the 1998 Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical, and Lemper was awarded Best Actress in a Musical. Both Lemper and Henshall have played the role of Velma on Broadway.
The production moved out of the Cambridge Theatre on August 27, 2011[60] and transferred to the Garrick Theatre on November 7, 2011, starring America Ferrera as Roxie.[58]Robin Cousins joined the cast as Billy Flynn on July 17, 2012. The show closed on September 1, 2012 after a total run of nearly 15 years in London.[61] The UK tour of the production continued after the closing.[62]
To celebrate the 21st Anniversary of the West End revival production, Chicago returned, this time at the Phoenix Theatre opening April 11, 2018, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. as Billy Flynn, Sarah Soetaert as Roxie Hart, Josefina Gabrielle as Velma Kelly, and Ruthie Henshall as Mama Morton.[63][64] A cast change saw Martin Kemp take over the role of Billy Flynn, with Alexandra Burke as Roxie Hart and Mazz Murray as Mama Morton.[65] Denise Van Outen was announced to take over the role of Velma from 24 September 2018, but due to sustaining a stress fracture in her heel, her integration was delayed until 7 October.[66] The production featured on ITV's reality show, The Big Audition, to cast the replacement Velma. Following multiple rounds of singing, dancing and acting auditions, Laura Tyrer was selected to fill in for the role.[67]
North American tours
There have been ten North American national tours of Chicago.[68] The first tour started in April 1997 in Cincinnati, Ohio, six months after the revival opened on Broadway. The cast featured Charlotte d'Amboise (Roxie Hart), Jasmine Guy (Velma Kelly), Obba Babatundé (Billy Flynn) and Carol Woods (Matron "Mama" Morton). A second company started in December 1997 in Tampa, Florida.[69] The tour went on hiatus in Fall 1999 and started again in October 1999 in Denver, Colorado, featuring Robert Urich as Billy Flynn, Vicki Lewis (Velma) and Nana Visitor (Roxie).[70][71] The next tour started in October 2000 in Stamford, Connecticut, with Robert Urich. Chita Rivera joined the tour for several weeks.[72]
On 14 June 2018, the Gordon Frost Organisation announced a revival tour of Chicago commencing early 2019 at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney.[80] The show starred Natalie Bassingthwaighte as Roxie and Casey Donovan as Mama Morton.[81] The Melbourne leg of the tour starred Jason Donovan as Billy Flynn.[82] Donovan's father Terence had played the same role in the 1981 Australian production.[34]
The first Japanese-language production of the Tony-winning revival of Kander and Ebb's Chicago debuted in October 2008 at the Akasaka ACT Theatre in Tokyo, Japan, followed by an engagement at Osaka's Umeda Art Theatre. Presented by Barry and Fran Weissler in association with Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc. and Kyodo Tokyo Inc., the b production starred Ryoko Yonekura as Roxie Hart, Yōka Wao as Velma Kelly and Ryuichi Kawamura as Billy Flynn.[84]
A French-language production of Chicago, based on the Broadway 1996 revival, opened on September 18, 2018 at Théâtre Mogador in Paris with Sofia Essaïdi as Velma Kelly, Carien Keizer as Roxie Hart and Jean-Luc Guizone as Billy Flynn. Directed by Dominique Trottein with a book translated by Nicolas Engel, this production is choreographed by Ann Reinking and the music was supervised by Rob Bowman. This production closed on June 30, 2019.[87]
The Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada, presented an entirely new production of Chicago as part of their 2020 season; the organization was granted new production rights outside of New York or London for the first time in 30 years. It was directed by Donna Feore.[88]
A new production directed by Drew Anthony and choreographed by Lauren Ferreira was staged at The Royale Theatre at Planet Royale during September 2022, with Lucy Williamson as Velma, Elethea Sartorelli as Roxie, Brendan Hanson as Billy Flynn, Rachel Monamy as Mama Morton, Vincent Hooper as Amos and Greg Jarema as Mary Sunshine.[89]
2023-24 Australian Production
Australian theatrical producers John Frost (For Crossroads Live Australia) and Suzanne Jones (For Jones Theatrical Company) have confirmed they are uniting once more to bring CHICAGO back to Australia. This 2023/2024 production of CHICAGO will have its premiere at Perth’s Crown Theatre from November 2023, with a Brisbane season at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Lyric Theatre to closely follow in January 2024. Two months later in March 2024, Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne will host the production, And opens in August at the Festival Theatre Adelaide.
^Perry, Douglas (2010). The Girls of Murder City: fame, lust, and the beautiful killers that inspired Chicago. New York: Penguin Group /Viking Press. pp. 1–7, 16–18, 57–58. ISBN978-0-670-02197-0.
^McKinley, Jesse (January 17, 2003). "On Stage and Off". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 22, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2021.
