You MUST watch this: Bebe Neuwirth talks about Chicago:
Of necessity, this one will mostly be clips from the movie. (Who doesn't love Renee Zellwiger?)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Marilu Henner at the Macy's parade:
One of the best prison scenes EVER:
I like the use of red lighting and scarves to indicate guilt...and in the case of the ballerina, white for both to indicate she's innocent. I've watched a few clips of this number that were staged and they were very much like the movie version. (The movie version is quick to load and has great production values, which is why I use it here.)
The backstory, also from Wiki:
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.[3] However, upon her death in 1969, her estate sold the rights to producer Richard Fryer, Verdon, and Fosse.[3] 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.