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Cape Town – Broadway and West End musical Chicago is coming back to SA.
A nightclub singer, a double-murderess, a smooth-talking lawyer and a cell block of sin surrounded by the razzle dazzle of the world’s sexiest musical returns in 2019.
The multi-talented all-South African touring cast, band and crew begin rehearsals in Johannesburg this month ahead of an international tour to New Zealand and China.
The South African leg of the tour in association with BBC First brings Chicago back to Artscape, Cape Town from 15 March until 14 April 2019, thereafter heading to Montecasino’s Teatro in Johannesburg from 20 April to 26 May 2019. Booking is open at Computicket.
From the opening line to curtain close - there’s nothing like Chicago on stage. Originally staged in Cape Town and Johannesburg in 2005 and again, owing to popular demand, in 2008 at Montecasino’s Teatro and Artscape, this show has been enjoyed by more than 210,000 theatre-goers.
THE HISTORY OF CHICAGO:
Chicago was first created by the legendary Broadway trio of John Kander (music), Fred Ebb (book/lyrics) and Bob Fosse (co-author, original director and choreographer) in 1975, and was based on a 1926 Broadway play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist from the Chicago Tribune who had covered the sensational trials of two women, both of whom were accused of killing their lovers whilst under the influence of drink and jazz.
Kander and Ebb enjoyed a collaboration that spanned four decades, defined musical theatre on Broadway and earned them numerous awards. Bob Fosse was one of Broadway’s biggest and brightest creative stars, renowned for his innovative and spectacular staging, with the emphasis on exhilarating dance sequences. He turned out one hit after another from the 1950s to the late 70s and is the only director so far to have won an Oscar, two Tony Awards and an Emmy Award in the same year, 1973.
In November 1996 a revival of Chicago opened on Broadway produced by Barry & Fran Weissler, and a year later they opened the show in London’s West End. The rest, as they say, is history.
