CHICAGO

About the show

In the rarefied world of cult shows, Chicago holds a place all its own, largely due to the caliber of those involved in its creation. Based on a play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Roxie Hart, already the source for a 1942 film starring Ginger Rogers, Chicago dealt with a girl accused of shooting her lover and acquitted after her shyster lawyer manipulates the media in her favor. The show, directed by Bob Fosse, also the co-author of its book, provided John Kander and Fred Ebb with a magnificent dark subject in which they could inject sardonic aspects of their own eccentric creativity. In their and Bob Fosse’s view, the trial became a series of vaudeville acts, brilliantly executed by Gwen Verdon as the murderess, Jerry Orbach as her lawyer, and Chita Rivera as another inmate. In spite of its credentials and a run of 947 performances, the show, which opened at the 46th Street Theatre on June 3, 1975, was eventually deemed a financial failure, though a creative success.