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 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.
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.
In the 1960s, Gwen Verdon read the play and asked her husband, Bob Fosse, about the possibility of creating a musical adaptation. Fosse approached playwright Watkins numerous times to buy the rights, but she repeatedly declined. In her later years, Watkins had become a born-again Christian and believed her play glamorized a scandalous way of living. However upon her death in 1969, her estate sold the rights to producer Richard Fryer, Verdon and Fosse. John Kander and Fred Ebb began work on the musical score, modeling each number on a traditional vaudeville number or a vaudeville performer. This format made explicit the show's comparison between "justice", "show-business", and contemporary society. Ebb and Fosse penned the book of the musical, with Fosse also directing and doing the choreography.
Chicago opened on June 3, 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre, and ran for a total of 936 performances.
Chicago was filmed in 2002, directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, and adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, staring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger, and Richard Gere, also featuring Queen Latifah, John C. Reilly and Lucy Liu.
CHICAGO has been honored with 6 Tony Awards, 2 Olivier Awards, a Grammy and thousands of standing ovations.
Date : 01.10.2010- 10.10.2010 21:00:00
Venue : Türker İnanoğlu Maslak Show Center
Ticket prices:
Category 1: 400,00 TL (VIP)
Category 2: 250,00 TL
Category 2: 250,00 TL
Category 3: 225,00 TL
Category 4: 180,00 TL
Category 5: 140,00 TL
Category 6: 100,00 TL
Category 7: 80,00 TL
Category 4: 180,00 TL
Category 5: 140,00 TL
Category 6: 100,00 TL
Category 7: 80,00 TL
Click for details: http://www.biletix.com/perfList.htm?id=827&pst=EVENTGROUP
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