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A universal story... and all that jazz
“MURDER, GREED, CORRUPTION, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery.” That’s what Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times about Chicago the Musical 20 years after a revival premiered. What more could a show want?
Chicago has it all, and 25 years after a reworking of the original show premiered, audiences still can’t get enough. Now it’s coming back to Segerstrom Center for one week only, May 16-21.
Chicago is still the musical with everything that makes Broadway shimmy-shake: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show-stopping song after another and some of the most astonishing dancing you’ve ever seen.
The story itself has been in front of an audience for almost 100 years. The 1926 Chicago trial of a woman who was acquitted of shooting her husband dead was covered by a female reporter who, shortly after the trial ended, turned it into a stage play. The next year, famed film director Cecil B. DeMille made it into a silent movie. Another film version was made in the 1940s and starred Ginger Rogers.
But none of them had Bob Fosse’s distinctive choreography—later channeled through his close protégé Anne Reinking—that has become synonymous with Chicago Opening in 1975, the score was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and Ebb and Fosse wrote the book. In 1996 Reinking adapted Fosse’s choreography for a City Center Encores! concert staging, which was then expanded into a full production for a Broadway run. It was a hit, and Anne won a Tony for Best Choreography.
Today the show holds the record as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. That history includes 6 Tony Awards®, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy®, and thousands of standing ovations. As “Roxie Hart” says, “I love the audience, and the audience loves me for loving them.”
As we celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, you’ve got to come see why the name on everyone’s lips is still…CHICAGO
SEGERSTROM HALL
May 16–21 | Tickets start at $29
Chicago is presented with generous support from Omaha Steaks