Chicago the Musical Tickets

Chicago Behind the Scenes

Based on the reports written in the Chicago Tribune in 1924 by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, the musical adapted the stories of murderesses Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner. Roxie and Velma in the musical are based on Annan and Gaertner while Billy Flynn is based on a combination of the women’s lawyers William Scott Stewart and W.W. O’Brien. In 1924, Annan was accused of murdering her lover, Harry Kalstedt, and found not guilty. Gaertner was also found not guilty in 1924 even after a pistol and bottle of gin were found in her abandoned car next to her dead lover, Walter Law.
The columns Dallas-Watkins wrote gained so much attention that she decided to write a play based on them. In 1926 her show even made it to Broadway and ran for 172 performances.
When Bob Fosse asked Watkins about obtaining rights she denied him and she kept doing so until she gave them over upon her death in 1969. The score for the musical was modeled on vaudeville and created by John Kander and Fred Ebb. The duo also wrote the book for the musical highlighting the themes of social justice and show business in modern society.