A Closer Look at the Musical, Chicago

Chicago is an American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal." Fred Ebb explains: “So I made it [Chicago] a vaudeville based on the idea that the characters were performers. Every musical moment in the show was loosely modeled on someone else: Roxie was Helen Morgan, Velma was Texas Guinan, Billy Flynn was Ted Lewis, Mama Morton was Sophie Tucker,” (Kander, Ebb, and Lawrence 127). Velma indeed is a reincarnation of Texas Guinan who “acted as hostess…for the entertainment…she was also a born press agent, constantly inventing stories and promoting herself,” (Slide 218). Roxie’s “Funny Honey” Amos is eerily reminiscent of Helen Morgan’s “Bill” from Kern and Hammerstein’s 1927 classic Showboat. Amos, too, in his “Mr. Cellophane” number, imitates Ziegfeld Follies star Bert Williams’ iconic hit “Nobody” “right down to Williams’ famous costume of oversized clothes and white gloves,” (Miller).

In linking the characters to vaudeville stars, the Chicago cast is, in effect, imitating the actual vaudeville acts they evoke. By 1900 (a time when vaudeville was just coming into its own), a new model of social science viewing imitation as key to the development of the self was gaining popularity while the older notion of intrinsic or fixed human character declined in plausibility among American psychologists (Glenn 62). Imitation came to be recognized as an outward play of personality rather than a telling ...

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... John, Fred Ebb, and Greg Lawrence. "Chicago on Broadway." Colored Lights: Forty Years of Words and Music, Show Biz, Collaboration, and All That Jazz. New York: Faber and Faber, 2003. 119-40. Google Books. Web. 1 May 2014.

Kerr, Walter. "'Chicago' Comes On Like Doomsday." Rev. of Chicago. New York Times 8 June 1975, Arts and Leisure sec.: 109. New York Times Archives. New York Times. Web. 1 May 2014.

Miller, Scott. "Inside Chicago." Deconstructing Harold Hill: An Insider's Guide to Musical Theatre. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Drama, 1999. N. pag. New Line Theatre. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.

Slide, Anthony. The Encyclopedia of Vaudeville. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Google Books. Web. 1 May 2014.

Zoglin, Richard. "Theater: That Old Razzle-Dazzle Chicago Was Once A Problem. Now It's A Triumph." Rev. of Chicago. Time 25 Nov. 1996: n. pag. Time. Time. Web. 8 Mar. 2014.