2027-28 Proposal: Chicago

Chicago

By Kander and Ebb

Directed by Michael Phillips

Music Direction by Jim Martinez

Show Synopsis 

In “Roaring Twenties” Chicago, chorine Roxie Hart murders a faithless lover and convinces her hapless husband, Amos, to take the rap...until he finds out he's been duped and turns on Roxie. Convicted and sent to death row, Roxie and another "Merry Murderess," Velma Kelly, vie for the spotlight and the headlines, ultimately joining forces in search of the "American Dream": fame, fortune, and acquittal. This sharp-edged satire features a dazzling score that sparked immortal staging by Bob Fosse.

Vision Statement:

“Chicago” has an important place in the flow of the American Musical. It opened just a few years after the end of the Golden Age and is one example of how a few musicals completely broke away from the structure of that age. These “concept musicals” (“A Chorus Line,” “Company,” and yes, "Chicago,'" just to name a few) have plots driven by a concept, or big idea, rather than the linear stories of the Golden Age musicals.

The key to “Chicago” is in its full title – “Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville.” The entire show is actually a series of vaudevillian acts, in which the “concept” is the manipulation of reality. Every time a character breaks into a musical number, they’re essentially performing in a “fantasy” space where the characters are begging for the audience to like them.

It is fragmented, satirical, cynical, disjointed, vaudevillian. It breaks completely away from the “book” nature of the musicals that came before it, and in their place, it embraces the “concept.” It’s a new thing altogether.

One of the many advantages of “Chicago” is that it almost begs for an empty space and minimalist set pieces. With the band right on stage, the space becomes a Vaudeville performance space, with the audience focusing on the actors rather than on story, set, whatever else. The performing actor IS the point.

And since this was originally choreographed and directed by the great Bob Fosse, then there’s an aesthetic that we can embrace. Fosse created an entire genre of movement and dance that we can rely on. We don’t have to copy his work – we just have to understand it and embrace the Fosse “genre.”

Finally, this musical is just a lot of fun. The music is wonderful, the opportunity for dancers is second to none, and the characters are a blast. And, if we do right by the musical, it will be thrilling for an audience.

“Chicago” is a brilliant, minimalist, Vaudevillian concept musical that explores themes like murder, mayhem, and the media. It is a dance musical, inspired by the late, great Bob Fosse. With the band right on stage, the show invites the audience in, to experience the rise and fall (and rise again?) of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly.