“Chicago” Reliably Delivers All That Jazz
The musical Chicago is back at Overture Center through March 26 as part of the Broadway Series, and for a show that debuted in 1975, it’s held up remarkably well. With music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse, the musical – set in the 1920s about two sensational women accused of terrible crimes of passion – contains several blockbuster songs that are worth the price of admission to see performed live. The characters are still intriguing, the choreography is still stunning, and public fascination with lascivious crimes is still very relevant. An indictment of sensational journalism that makes killers into rockstars and jury trials into circuses, Chicago still has enough “razzle dazzle” to keep us spellbound, more than fifty years after its debut and a century after the murder cases that inspired the show.
Need some more reasons to grab your tickets for the remaining shows this weekend? Here are some fun facts about the musical tale of murder, mayhem, adultery, and greed that audiences keep coming back for.
It’s based on a true story.
Inspired by actual events, the musical is based on a 1926 play, written by former Chicago Tribune court reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. For eight months she covered the murder trials of Belva Gaertner and Beulah Sheriff Annan, who she characterized as "beauties of the cell block" and "the most stylish members of Murderess Row." After almost a year of frenzied and sensational press coverage by the Tribune and all the other dailies, the two captivating criminals were found not guilty, much to Watkins’s chagrin.
Represented in the musical as the character Mary Sunshine (who is also not all she appears to be) Watkins is portrayed as part of the problem – a cog in the media machine, making money from insatiable public interest in gorgeous defendants with sob stories and a side of murder. Sunshine (and Watkins) couldn’t fill enough column inches with the true crime that desperate and newly liberated women of Jazz Age Chicago were driven to commit.
It went 0 for 11 at the 1976 Tony Awards.
Chicago was an enormous hit when it opened on Broadway, running for two years, and almost a thousand performances. But it debuted at the same time A Chorus Line hit the boards, and the Tony voters showed their pronounced preference for the meta-musical about dancers trying out for a Broadway show. The subsequent revivals, along with the 2002 film starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere, fared much better in the hardware department, garnering Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, Olivier Awards, a Grammy, and six Academy Awards.
It’s a time capsule for Bob Fosse’s choreography.
There are few modern choreographers whose work can be so easily identified as the enigmatic, troubled genius Bob Fosse. His sex-forward costumes, nods to classic Vaudeville with bowler hats and canes, sensuous shoulder rolls, signature hand gestures, and pulsing hip swings have a visual vocabulary all their own. They are all on display in Chicago, along with carefully controlled, tantalizing and angular energy, punctuated with jazz hands. Ironically, although Fosse was not rewarded for his vision in the original production, his protege and Chicago cast member Ann Reinking won a Tony Award for Best Choreography for the 1997 Broadway revival, based heavily on Fosse’s original look and feel for the show.
It’s a revolving door for stars of music, TV, and movies.
So, what do Pamela Anderson, Christie Brinkley, Melanie Griffith, Ashlee Simpson, Brooke Shields, Cuba Gooding Jr., Billy Ray Cyrus, Hal Linden, Huey Lewis, Ben Vereen, Tom Wopat, Jerry Springer, Lynda Carter, Kelly Osbourne, Usher, Isaac Mizrahi, and Jerry Orbach have in common? That’s right. They all played a main character in a production of Chicago, on U.S. or London stages.
Notably, this touring production features Christina Wells as the enterprising prison fixer, Matron “Mama” Morton. She’s playing the role after finding stardom as a semifinalist on the TV show, “America’s Got Talent.” Meanwhile, on Broadway, non-binary drag queen Jinkx Monsoon is currently playing the same prison matron role, to thunderous applause each night. And last fall, Angelica Ross made headlines for stepping into the part of Roxie Hart. She was the first openly trans woman to star in a lead role in Chicago.
So, there’s stunt casting (we see you David Hasselhoff) and there’s making a strong statement for inclusion in the show’s long history. It turns out Chicago can do both.
It’s a great primer for Schmicago!
Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon! aired in 2021, a comic/satirical love letter to classic musicals from the 1940s and 1950s, including Brigadoon, The Music Man, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music and Carousel. In the second season, premiering on April 5, main characters Josh and Melissa will find themselves in “Schmicago,” a world peopled with characters from more recent musicals, including Chicago, Sweeney Todd, Cabaret, Pippin, Godspell, and Hair. See the source material so you can laugh along at all the musical theater jokes!