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''Chicago'' is a 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." The original Broadway production opened in 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chicago )〕 and ran for 936 performances until 1977. Bob Fosse choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. Following a West End debut in 1979 which ran for 600 performances, ''Chicago'' was revived on Broadway in 1996, and a year later in the West End. The Broadway revival holds the record as the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, and is the second longest-running show in Broadway history, behind only ''The Phantom of the Opera'', having played its 7,486th performance on November 23, 2014, surpassing ''Cats''.〔Gans, Andrew. (""All That Jazz": ''Chicago'' Becomes Second Longest-Running Broadway Show Tonight" ) Playbill.com, November 23, 2014〕 The West End revival ran for nearly 15 years, becoming the longest-running American musical in West End history, and it has enjoyed several tours and international productions. The Academy Award-winning 2002 film version of the musical was directed by Rob Marshall and starred Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, and Queen Latifah. ==History== The musical ''Chicago'' is based on a play of the same name by reporter and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins, who was assigned to cover the 1924 trials of accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the ''Chicago Tribune''. In the early 1920s, Chicago's press and public became riveted by the subject of homicides committed by women. Several high-profile cases arose, which generally involved women killing their lovers or husbands. These cases were tried against a backdrop of changing views of women in the Jazz age, and a long string of acquittals by Cook County juries of women murderesses (jurors at the time were all men, and convicted murderers generally faced death by hanging). A lore arose that, in Chicago, feminine or attractive women could not be convicted. The ''Chicago Tribune'' generally took a pro-prosecution "hang-them-high" stance, while still presenting the details of these women's lives. Its rivals at the Hearst papers were more pro-defendant, and employed what were derisively called "sob-sisters" – women reporters who focused on the plight, attractiveness, redemption, or grace of the women defendants. Regardless of stance, the press covered several of these women as celebrities. 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 Kelly is based on Gaertner, who was a cabaret singer, and society divorcée. 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. Lawyers William Scott Stewart and W. W. O'Brien were models for a composite character in ''Chicago'', "Billy Flynn."〔McConnell, Virginia A. (''Fatal Fortune: the Death of Chicago's Millionaire Orphan'', p. 62 ) ''Fatal Fortune: the Death of Chicago's Millionaire Orphan'' (books.google), Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0-275-98473-7. p. 62〕 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, and Fosse also directed and choreographed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chicago (musical)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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