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Chicago (musical)




The play ''Chicago'' was Watkins' retelling of two very public trials for murder that occurred in Chicago in 1924, those of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner . Watkins had been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and later wrote a play based on her coverage.

acts.

The play was produced in 1975, starring Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly, Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart, and Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn. Liza Minnelli served as a replacement for Gwen Verdon for a month in 1975, and her Broadway "comeback" generated publicity which helped lengthen the run of the show. When Verdon left the show, Fosse's girlfriend Ann Reinking stepped into the role.

As part of the City Center "Encores!" Series , the show was revived in 1996, directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed "in the style of Bob Fosse" by Ann Reinking . It starred Joel Grey , James Naughton , Bebe Neuwirth , and Ann Reinking. This version, which transferred to Broadway, opened on November 14 , 1996 and is still running as of February 2006 . It also continues to play in the West End at the Adelphi Theatre until 22 April , and at the Cambridge Theatre from 28 April 2006 .

The show was translated into French in 2003 for performance in Quebec , and was subsequently adapted again for France by the French humorist Laurent Ruquier in 2004.

The musical was adapted for the movie '' Chicago '' in 2002, starring Renée Zellweger as Roxie and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma. The story was told by staging the vaudeville acts as fantasies of Roxie Hart, by eliminating some songs, and by changing the role of Mary Sunshine from male to female.

The 2002 film won the Oscar for Best Picture , and Zeta-Jones won Best Supporting Actress .


THE NUMBERS AND THE VAUDEVILLE ACTS THEY WERE MODELLED ON

  • "Overture" - performed by a pit-band

  • "All That Jazz" - a number in homage to famous speakeasy performer Texas Guinan

  • "Funny Honey" - modeled on Helen Morgan , singing "Bill"

  • "Cell Block Tango" - the "merry murderesses" evoke the "ethnic numbers" of Vaudeville, and the death by hanging is staged as a "tightrope" act

  • "When You're Good to Mama" - a " Sophie Tucker "-type double-entendre song, playing on the perceived homosexuality of the character

  • "All I Care About" - a striptease based on Sally Rand and her fan dance, with the performer modeled on clarinetist and bandleader Ted ''Is Everybody Happy?'' Lewis

  • "Little Bit of Good" - a female-impersonator reminiscent of Julian Eltinge singing a Jerome Kern parody as Marilyn Miller

  • "The Press Conference Rag" aka "We Both Reached for the Gun" - a ventriloquist act

  • "Roxie" - an autobiographical, observational stand-up comedy routine

  • "I Can't Do It Alone" - half of a "double-act" (or an acrobatic "sister-act")

  • "My Own Best Friend" - a torch song, subverted by the fact the singers are praising themselves

  • "Me and My Baby" - a Cakewalk , a la Eddie Cantor

  • "Mr. Cellophane" - a clown number reminiscent of Bert Williams ' 1915 Follies song "Nobody" performed wearing the costume of Emil Jannings from the final scene of '' The Blue Angel ''

  • "When Velma Takes the Stand" - evokes vaudeville's courtroom comedy sketches, and staged as a parody of Rudy Vallee 's numbers featuring collegiate chorus boys with megaphones

  • "Razzle Dazzle": the lawyer Billy Flynn assumes the persona of Clarence Darrow in a juggling circus act.

  • "Class"

  • "Nowadays" - in the style of bandleader Ted Lewis

  • "Hot Honey Rag" - in the style of bandleader Ted Lewis



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