Barry & Fran Weissler in association with Kardana/Hart Sharp Entertainment WELCOME. present LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE A Lyrics by Music By Book by STORY OF Fred Ebb John Kander Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse MURDER, Original Production Directed and Choreographed by Bob Fosse Based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins GREED, Supervising Music Director Music Director Rob Fisher Leslie Stifelman Scenic Design Costume Design Lighting Design John Lee Beatty William Ivey Long Ken Billington Sound Design Orchestrations Dance Music Arrangements CORRUPTION, Scott Lehrer Ralph Burns Peter Howard Script Adaptation Musical Coordinator Hair Design David Thompson Seymour Red Press David Brian Brown VIOLENCE, Casting Original Casting Duncan Stewart and Company Jay Binder Technical Supervisor Dance Supervisor Production Stage Manager Arthur Siccardi Gary Chryst David Hyslop Executive Producer Presented in Association with EXPLOITATION, Alecia Parker Broadway Across America General Manager Press Representative B.J. Holt Jeremy Shaffer The Publicity Office ADULTERY & Based on the presentation by City Center’s Encores!SM Choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse TREACHERY Directed by Walter Bobbie – ALL THOSE THINGS WE HOLD Cast Recording on RCA Victor NEAR AND DEAR TO OUR HEARTS. AMY SPANGER STEPHANIE POPE This production isn’t just smoke and mirrors. It’s flesh and blood shaped by discipline and artistry into a parade of vital pulsing talent. If there’s any justice in this world (and Chicago insists there isn’t), audiences will be exulting in that parade for many, many performances to come. BEN BRANTLEY, THE NEW YORK TIMES CHICAGO still glitters hypnotically! It remains the best adult entertainment in town… and still bubbles with the joy of performing! -THE NEW YORK TIMES ALWAYS CREATIVE AMRA-FAYE WRIGHT A NOTE FROM JOHN KANDERMUSIC When Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse came to Fred and me with Then, lo and behold, all these years later, the show was the idea for this project (it must have been about 1973, because revived into a stunning production and became (and still is) an we opened in 1975), Fred was ecstatic and I was less so. I didn’t enormous success. Although the revival is more spare and stark admit to my lack of enthusiasm to Bob, but I did to Fred, because then the original, it is the same choreographic approach, the I thought to myself “oh my God, another ‘show business is a same dialogue (with expert trims by Tommy Thompson), the metaphor for life’ piece,” which I felt we had already done. same orchestration and the same attitude towards life. The two productions are basically the same and the question I’ve had As it usually happened in my collaborations with Fred, however, these ten, wonderful years is why? Why, has the revival been so when one of us showed enthusiasm over something and the much more successful than its predecessor? other was not so inspired, we would still support each other and go along to see where it took us. With Chicago, as we I’ve yet to get a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon. began to write and particularly as we worked on the score, I Perhaps it was the O.J. Simpson case or the increased awareness began to fall in love with the piece and felt very strongly about of corruption in our society. Perhaps our culture had changed its run on Broadway. in the twenty-one years between the two productions or the climate and competition of the rest of Broadway is different. So, it was very startling to me after we opened in 1975 to I still don’t know, but whatever the case, I’m glad to have the receive such lackluster reviews. We had some bad reviews…we mystery. had some good reviews, but overall nothing wildly overboard. The show ran for two years and was a moderate success, but disappointing to say the least. JASON PATRICK SANDS, AMOS WOLFF, RYAN WORSING A NOTE FROM WALTER BOBBIE DIRECTOR “Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see a story of The motor of any musical is its score, and Kander and Ebb murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery have written a “hummer.” Each song enhanced by Ralph Burns’s and treachery,--all those things we hold near and dear to our brassy jazz band orchestrations, evokes the 1920s, reveals hearts.” character, makes us laugh, drives the story, and simultaneously sustains an insistent beat, an edge which (like its characters) So begins the musical Chicago—and creators John Kander, is as desperate to entertain as it is entertaining. A score of Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse never back off from that bold and show-stoppers. Our production had its beginnings at City sinister promise. A promise they fulfill with wit, danger, dazzle, Center’s “Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert.” style and a great deal of humor. The prickly delight of Chicago It was conceived as an homage to Bob Fosse, one of the great is that the musical is both showbiz savvy and theatrically rich, theatrical minds of any generation. Rather then reproduce so that while it sets toes tapping, it also entertains the mind. his1975 Broadway production, we chose to reawaken its themes by honoring Fosse’s choreographic style, and filling But first the story; Roxie Hart, a nightclub dancer who dreams his production with stylistic images that spanned his brilliant of headlining in vaudeville, kills her lover, then convinces her career. husband to come up with $5,000 to hire Chicago’s shrewdest lawyer, who ultimately turns her crime into celebrity headlines Our minimalist set and lighting reflect Chicago’s themes of and gets his client acquitted. By telling its tale in the sexy jazzy entrapment. Less site-specific, the production moves fluidly style of modern vaudeville, the killers (and there are five more not from place to place, but from one emotional context of them) set out to seduce the audience as well as the jury. to the next. The characters in Chicago are trapped—either in prison and in the legal system, or trapped by their own This 1975 musical based on the 1926 play by Maurine Dallas fame, lust, greed, ambition. Likewise, our cast is trapped on Watkins now looks like it was ripped from today’s headlines. stage, the orchestra confined in an exaggerated jury box, In recent years, America has experienced a new wave of and our lighting shadows these images with prison bars and celebrity trials. The abuses, manipulation of and by the press, the glamorized solitude of the spotlight. The costumes are and the complexity of our judicial system can make the search as sexually manipulative as any contemporary advertising. for truth and justice seem like different goals. Chicago’s plot Black became the color—black, and of course, skin. Stripping was shocking in 1926, cynical and satirical in 1975, and today Chicago bare has revealed a piece of writing sturdier, richer, DENISE VAN OUTEN feels like a documentary. funnier and certainly more relevant than ever. A NOTE FROM A NOTE FROM ANN REINKINGCHOREOGRAPHER BARRY WEISSLERPRODUCER When I was young, I read a wise and surprising quote from the great Martha Graham as told to Agnes de Mille. This perception has From its appearance at “Encores!” in 1995, Walter Bobbie and Ann Reinking’s new take on Chicago wowed audiences with stayed in my soul deeply and somehow in a grown-up way. It goes like this: its sleek, sexy style and choreography based on the Fosse style. The rapturous reception of the limited run of “Encores!” performances led to immediate plans to move the show to Broadway where it once again received blissful reviews. Critics “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all and pundits commented on the show’s timeliness in the current celebrity-obsessed culture, and ten years hence, with the time, this expression is unique. reality TV and celebrity scandals unabated, the show created in 1975 seems more prophetic than ever. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work, you have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. The terrific songs of Kander and Ebb, reinvented, reinterpreted, belted and chirped by performers around the world in No artist is pleased. varied languages combined with a stream of celebrity and theatrical cast replacements has kept the show sharp, entertaining There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; and current. The popularity of the 2003 Oscar®-winning film gave the show another boost, bringing the musical to an even A blessed unrest that keeps us marching broader audience. Chicago has enjoyed productions in over thirty different countries and has been performed in at least And makes us more alive than the others.” seven different languages, making this timeless production a true international triumph, appealing to audiences young and old across many different cultures. I have known and treasured the exquisite growing pains of three great men. John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, who created the musical of Chicago. No matter how someone does a different highly creative version of, say, the opera “Carmen” by Bizet, Perhaps Ben Brantley of The New York Times said it best in his original 1996 review. “This production isn’t just smoke and it is still Carmen by Bizet. mirrors. It’s flesh and blood shaped by discipline and artistry into a parade of vital pulsing talent. If there’s any justice in this world (and Chicago insists that there isn’t), audiences will be exulting in that parade for many, many performances to come.” Most of us have lived long enough to know that it was the writers that made a true classic—and they did it! We have added, loved, and respected it.