Chicago The Musical
Context:
Page 1: Chicago The Musical
Page 2 : The Original Broadway Production
Page 3: The History of Chicago The Musical
Page 4: The Plot
Page 5: The Main Characters
Page 6: The Characters
Page 7: The Real Murders Behind “Chicago” – The Musical
Page 8: The Music
Page 9: Songs in Chicago The Musical
Page 10: Behind Jazz Music
Page 11: Director
Page 12: Costumes in Chicago The Musical
Page 13: Why I chose Chicago The Musical
THE END!
Chicago The Musical:
Chicago is a musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal."
The original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for 936 performances until 1977. Bob Fosse choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. Following a West End debut in 1979 which ran for 600 performances, Chicago was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End.
The Broadway revival holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, and is the second longest-running show in Broadway history, behind only The Phantom of the Opera, having played its 7,486th performance on November 23, 2014, surpassing Cats. The West End revival ran for nearly 15 years, becoming the longest-running American musical in West End history, and it has enjoyed several tours and international productions
The Original Broadway:
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. 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."
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. 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. The producers contemplated closing the show, but Liza Minnelli stepped in and offered to play the role of Roxie Hart in place of Verdon. Her run lasted a month, boosting the show's popularity, and Gwen Verdon recuperated and returned to the show. Later during the run, Ann Reinking, who would go on to star in the highly successful 1996 revival and choreograph that production in the style of Bob Fosse, was also a cast replacement for Roxie Hart during the show's original run.
History:
The musical Chicago is based on a play of the same name by reporter 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 women murderesses (jurors at the time were all men, 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 took a pro-prosecution "hang-them-high" stance, 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 women defendants. Regardless of stance, the press covered several of these women as celebrities.
Annan, the model for the character of Roxie Hart, was 23 when she was accused of the April 3, 1924,murder of Harry Kalstedt. 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". She was found not guilty on May 25, 1924. 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. Gaertner was acquitted on June 6, 1924. Lawyers William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien were models for a composite character in Chicago, "Billy Flynn."
Watkins' sensational columns documenting these trials proved so popular that she decided to write a play based on them. The show received both popular and critical acclaim and even made it to Broadway in 1926, running for 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.
The Plot:
Act 1
In the mid 1920s in Chicago, Illinois, Velma Kelly is a vaudevillian who murdered both her husband and her sister when she found them in bed together. She welcomes the audience to tonight's show ("All That Jazz"). Meanwhile, we hear of chorus girl Roxie Hart's murder of her lover, nightclub regular Fred Casely.
Act 2
Velma again welcomes the audience with the line "Hello, Suckers," another reference to Texas Guinan, who commonly greeted her patrons with the same phrase. She informs the audience of Roxie's continual run of luck ("I Know a Girl") despite Roxie's obvious falsehoods ("Me and My Baby"). A little shy on the arithmetic, Amos proudly claims paternity, and still nobody notices him ("Mr. Cellophane"). Velma tries to show Billy all the tricks she's got planned for her trial ("When Velma Takes The Stand"). With her ego growing, Roxie has a heated argument with Billy, and fires him. She is brought back down to earth when she learns that a fellow inmate has been executed.
The Main Characters:
Velma Kelly: is one of the main characters in the successful Broadway musical Chicago. The Velma Kelly in Chicago: The Movie is a nightclub singer/vaudevillian who was accused of murder of her husband and sister. She is sent to the Cook County Jail where she hires the best soliciting lawyer, Billy Flynn. Singing and dancing, and telling her side of the story, Kelly goes through her time at jail being the star until Roxie Hart comes into the picture.
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart: is a young, sweet, sexy 20-something woman who dreams of being a famous jazz-singer. Although married to vulnerable Amos Hart, she has an affair with Fred Casely with the intention of being famous. When she eventually finds out that he can't make that happen, she kills him in anger. Arrested and desperate, the jail bait does whatever she can to achieve fame.
The Characters:
Billy Flynn: a much sought-after lawyer who successfully manipulates the media in order to free his clients.
Matron Mama Morton: the jail matron who has set up a give-and take system with the murderesses.
Amos hart: Roxie’s husband who willingly takes the blame for killing Fred Casely until he finds out that she was having an affair with him.
Mary sunshine: a kind-hearted columnist who falls for Billy’s story about Roxie’s innocence.
Fred Casely: a nightclub regular who gets shot by his lover, Roxie.
Merry Murderesses: the group of women who are all in jail for murder.
The Real Murders Behind “Chicago” – The Musical :
The first murder involved the woman who would become the inspiration for Velma Kelly’s character, Belva Gaertner. Belva was a cabaret singer who allegedly murdered the man she was having an affair with after a night of drinking at the local jazz holes. The man, Walter Law, was found in the front seat of Belva’s car next to a gun and a bottle of gin, and Belva herself was found in her apartment near some blood-stained clothes. However Gaertner was acquitted a few months later on the grounds that Law could have killed himself. But before the dust could settle surrounding Gaertner’s case, another murder would capture the attention of Chicago’s jazz scene.
Beulah Sheriff-Annan, who would be fictionalized as Roxie Hart, was working at a laundry when she met the man that would become her victim. During what appeared to be an illicit meeting between her and co-worker Harry Kalstedt, she shot him and then sat listening to a record and drinking cocktails while he expired. Although her specific story changed over the course of the trial, it was clear that Beulah was the killer. Thanks to the funding and support of her inexplicably faithful husband, Albert Annan, Beulah was acquitted in short order. Yet in a move to rival the coldest femme fatale, Beulah publicly left her husband the day the trial ended.
The Music:
For example the song "All That Jazz" is a song from the 1975 musical Chicago. It has music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, and is the opening song of the musical. The title of the 1979 film, starring Roy Scheider as a character strongly resembling choreographer/stage and film director Bob Fosse, is derived from the song.
Robert Louis "Bob" Fosse (June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film director and actor.
Songs in Chicago The Musical:
Act 1
All That Jazz" – Velma Kelly and Company
"Funny Honey" – Roxie
"Cell Block Tango" – Velma and the Girls
"When You're Good to Mama" – Matron "Mama" Morton
"No" – Roxie and Boys
"All I Care About" – Billy Flynn and the Girls
"A Little Bit of Good" – Mary Sunshine
"We Both Reached for the Gun" – Billy, Roxie, Mary Sunshine
"Roxie" – Roxie and Boys
"I Can't Do It Alone" – Velma
""My Own Best Friend" – Roxie and Velma
Act 2
"I Know a Girl" – Velma
"Me and My Baby" – Roxie and Company
"Mr. Cellophane" – Amos
"When Velma Takes the Stand" – Velma and Boys
"Razzle Dazzle" – Billy and Company
"Class" – Velma and Morton
"Nowadays" – Roxie
"Finale: Nowadays/Keep It Hot" – Roxie and Velma
Behind Jazz Music:
Jazz is a genre of music that originated in Africa American communities during the late 19th and early 20th century. It emerged in many parts of the United States of independent popular musical styles; linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a range of music from ragtime to the present day a period of over 100 years and has proved to be very difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and ragtime. A musical group that plays jazz is called a jazz band. The birth of Jazz in the multicultural society of America has lead intellectuals from around the world to hail Jazz as "one of America's original art forms.
Director:
Robert Louis "Bob" Fosse (June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American dancer, musical theatre choreographer, director, screenwriter, film director and actor.
Fosse was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 23, 1927, to a Norwegian American father, Cyril K. Fosse, and Irish-born mother, Sara Alice Fosse, the second youngest of six. He teamed up with Charles Grass, another young dancer, and began a collaboration under the name The Riff Brothers. They toured theatres throughout the Chicago area. After being recruited, Fosse was placed in the variety show Tough Situation, which toured military and naval bases in the Pacific. Fosse moved to New York with the ambition of being the new Fred Astaire.
His appearance with his first wife and dance partner Mary Ann Niles (1923–1987) in Call Me Mister brought him to the attention of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Fosse and Niles were regular performers on Your Hit Parade during its 1950-51 season, and during this season Martin and Lewis caught their act in New York's Pierre Hotel and scheduled them to appear on the Colgate Comedy Hour. Fosse was signed to a MGM contract in 1953. His early screen appearances included Give A Girl A Break, The Affairs of Dobie Gillis and Kiss Me Kate, all released in 1953. A short sequence that he choreographed in the latter (and danced with Carol Haney) brought him to the attention of Broadway producers.
Costumes in Chicago The Musical:
The costumes in Chicago the musical were quit smart and sexual revealing clothing in the 1970s for example the men would wear a simple black suit with a white shirt, tie and a fedora hat and the women's in simple dresses and vintage sequin vamp dresses in sexual clothing wear for instance in some of the songs for example cell block tango the girls are dressed in see-through clothing showing underwear with stockings or fish tights with a long black and white striped jacket. The main colours of the costumes were mostly black.
Why I chose Chicago The Musical:
I chose Chicago The Musical because I found it quit interesting how they based on a true story with the two murders with Belva Gaertner and Beulah Sheriff-Annan, I have learned so much about this musical how it all started who directed it I've also learned that it was based on true story's which I never knew at first.
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