“Chicago” Opens July 9th!
Get ready! We’re about to blow the roof off the place. “Chicago: The Musical” is coming!
“Chicago: The Musical” has had a very interesting life. The latest edition, which opened in January of 1996, has become the longest running revival in Broadway history, now over 5,600 performances. But the original production which opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre had a lackluster run and sat unproduced by any major theatre for over twenty years. So what when wrong in ’76? The original had a legendary cast; Gwyn Verdon, Chita Rivera and Jerry Orbach and was choreographed by Bob Fosse in the wake of his blockbuster success with another Kander and Ebb show, “Cabaret.” Fosse, one of the most gifted director/choreographer’s in Broadway history had won the Triple Crown just two years before winning the Tony for “Pippin” the Oscar for “Cabaret” and the Emmy for “Liza with a Z.” Everyone expected it to dominate the year but just weeks after its opening Michael Bennett, the other great choreographer of his age, opened his production of “A Chorus Line.” Anyone not around in the late 1970s has no idea what a blockbuster that show was. It became the hottest ticket in New York for nearly fifteen years and it buried everything in its wake, including “Chicago.”
Fosse died in 1986, Bennett died in 1987, but Fosse had Anne Reinking, a gifted dancer/actress who had been his protégée and lover in his later years, and Gwyn Verdon, his ex-wife and still devoted champion, to carry on his legacy. The two collaborated to create a retrospective, “Fosse” which won a Tony, but it was the revival of “Chicago” that would change everything. The show has spawned an Academy Award winning Best Picture, and the Broadway production is still running. The usual rule of thumb is that if a show is running in New York the rights are restricted and no other theatre can produce it. Because of “Chicago’s” extraordinarily long run the rights have been released and HART is one of the first theatre’s to be granted permission to do the show.
The musical is based on a play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, who had been assigned to cover the 1924 trials of murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. 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 is based on Gaertner, who was a cabaret singer. 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”. One of several film versions of the story Roxie Hart (1942) stared Ginger Rogers, but in this version, Roxie was accused of murder without having really committed it.
Another interesting bit of trivia surrounding the original production; the show was on the verge of closing, when Gwen Verdon inhaled a feather during the finale, which resulted in a throat infection. 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, and Gwen Verdon recuperated and returned to the show.
Our production is going to be one of the most exciting show’s we’ve ever done. It has been in rehearsal for nearly two months and the dancers in this show have worked harder than any group in any prior HART production. It is a dance show and you are going to be “razzle dazzled!” The two female leads are both familiar faces. Julie Kinter who rocked the stage as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” returns as Velma Kelly and Candice Dickenson who blew everyone away last summer as Ulla in “The Producers” is Roxie Hart. Also in the cast: Trevor Perry, Jeff Bachar, Lyn Donley, Todd Shuck, Jeremiah Jackson, Lora Kole, Dorothie Willson, Megan Smith, Bergen Jorgenson, Jessica Blackwell, Taylor Loven, Alexia Grant, Melissa Joy Lang, Kate Gardner, Tierney Cody, Jacob Walas, Ricky Sanford, Wesley Miller, Luke Wander, Van Raynor, Jack Ross and Sean Bruce. Coming back as choreographer is Cord Scott and as Music Director is Chuck Taft. This is the big one folks, so do not delay in making your reservations. Remember you can also go on line to www.harttheatre.com to buy tickets.