Chicago Tickets

Chicago is the famed Bob Fosse musical that captures the era of prohibition, corruption, crime, dames, and all that jazz.

Chicago is based on true events. The play is based on the trial of two women who committed murder. There was first a series play based on the true events that was popular in 1926, and Cecil B DeMille, best known as the director of the Ten Commandments, did a film version of the play in 1927, Fosse was interested in turning the story into a musical play since the ‘60’s at the suggestion of his wife Gwen Verdon, but the rights didn’t become available until the end of the decade.

Chicago is set in the vaudeville era, and the characters in the play are based on vaudeville performers but Fosse absolutely left his steamy, sexy and darker stamp on the material. Fosse saw the story as a parallel between criminal justice and show biz, a theme that is fresh as ever today.

And All That Jazz

Chicago was written, choreographed and directed by the legendary Bob Fosse who also directed Cabaret and All That Jazz. Fosse’s 1975 version featured Jerry Orbach, and Chita Rivera (Fosse was planning on directing a film adaptation of Chicago before he passed away).

Chicago had tough competition that season from A Chorus Line, but it held in there. The 1975 run of Chicago was nominated for three Tonys including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score. But the real breakthrough success for the musical came twenty years later, a testament to the play’s staying power, and the timeliness of its storyline.

A stage revival of Chicago that began in 1996 ran for over ten years, reportedly the sixth longest running play on Broadway. 1996 revival featured Bebe Neuwroth, currently starting in The Addams Family, superstar of stage Joel Grey, and Fosse dance regular Ann Reinking.

Chicago, My Kind of Town

The 1996 revival of Chicago won six Tonys, five Drama Desk Awards, and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Chicago has been performed all over the world, from Denmark to Albania.

The hits kept comin’ for Chicago when it was adapted into a film starring Richard Gere, Rene Zellweger, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. It swept the 2002 Academy Awards, winning six Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Bob Fosse Lives On

Bob Fosse was a major groundbreaker in the field of dance, and he was also an incredible dramatic filmmaker (Lenny, Star 80). He won eight Tonys in his lifetime, an Academy Award for directing the big screen adaptation of Cabaret, beating out Francis Ford Coppola for Best Director for The Godfather, an Emmy for the television special Liza With a “Z,” and the Palme d’Or for All That Jazz at the Cannes Film Festival, among many other awards and honors.

Among Fosse’s plays he’s directed and/or choreographed include Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sweet Charity, Pippin, and Dancing. The years and years of success of Chicago on stage and screen proves his incredible legacy continues to live on.