Chicago The Musical
Derek Blasberg The Musical; Professor Steve Nelson December 11, 2002 When the cast and crew of the modern revival of Chicago left the 1997 Tony Awards with six awards, it sent a shockwave through the play’s Broadway legacy. Chicago, a musical written from a book by Chicago Tribune staffer Maurine Watkins based on her experience covering Beulah Annan’s acquittal for murdering her husband by a clever media-savvy lawyer, was the revival of a not-heart-stoppingly-successful 70’s musical. ... revival of the play, the musical Chicago conceived by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse remained to be one of those shows in Broadway’s history that was great for what it was, but seemed to lack the luster and panache to make it memorable beyond its contemporaries such as Chorus Line, who took home the Tony that year, or shows that followed such as Annie and Guys and Dolls. Yet, the trio’s work in bringing the original Chicago to the stage was rewarded in Tony nominations in 1976, receiving almost all the nominations as it did 21 years later; however, none of those materialized into a single Tony for any of the stars of the original production—including Fosse, Ebb, Kander, Chita Rivera, Gwen Verdon, and Jerry Orbach. A little more than two decades later though, Chicago powerfully proved its potential, taking home Tony’s for Best Director (Walter Bobbie), Best Actor (James Naughton), Best Actress (Bebe Neuwirth), Best Lighting Design (Ken Billington), Best Choreographer (Ann Reinking—who, important to note, choreographed “in the style of Bob Fosse”), and Best Musical Revival. ... What made this recent Chicago better than the Chicago of years gone by? To appropriately answer that question, it’s best to look at what was going on when the original Chicago debuted. ... The musical that took home the majority of all those Tony’s Chicago was nominated for back in 1976 was A Chorus Line, a play that went on from it’s opening night in 1975 to 6,137 performances later in 1990. ... On the other hand, the original production of Chicago was a darkly comical satire of the American legal system. While “We Both Reached For the Gun” in Chicago is a fun song comically portraying the puppet-like roles of lawyers and defendants, it doesn’t seem to hold that hopeful and smiley punch that songs such as “I Hope I Get It” or “I Can Do That” from A Chorus Line have. Thus, in keeping that spirit of those 70’s, A Chorus Line emerged on Broadway as a more suitable, and thus, more successful (measuring here both Tony’s and performances) musical.