Chicago:10th Anniversary CD Set...How is it?

Got it earlier today. It is simply GORGEOUS! It's in a long hard book/case and features TONS of photographs of past stars who've done the show (67 pages worth). Love the front and back flaps of the book(let). It's composed of tons of photos.

The first disc is simply a remastering of the Original 1996 Broadway Revival Cast (nothing more), but the 2nd disc is a doozy -- Lynda Carter's "When You're Good to Mama" is quite impressive (who knew she had THOSE pipes? I knew she sang, but not like this!). Melanie Griffith does a credible and appropriate version of "Me and My Baby". Brooke Shields' "Roxie" is equally impressive. Biana Marroquin does a medley of "Funny Honey/Me and My Baby/Nowadays" (in Spanish and with just piano accompaniment), and they also snuck in Liza Minnelli doing her 'solo' version of "My Own Bestfriend" from back in the day (circa 1975-ish).

Haven't watched any portion of the DVD yet, but it states it contains:

1. INTERVIEWS: The Story of CHICAGO
with Walter Bobbie, Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth, John Kander, Rob Fisher and of course...Barry & Fran Weissler (the ones responsible for everything CHICAGO these days, aside from Marty Richards)

2. The Story of "Ten Percent"
with John Kander


International Performance Footage from Holland, Italy, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Russia

3. All That Jazz
4. All I Care About
5. Roxie

Wait! The full show from 1996 is on the DVD?

Edit: How much is it?

Updated On: 10/3/06 at 05:42 PM

I just purchased it on Amazon for $31.00

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I got the 4 songs I wanted off Itunes. And it was worth it.

The 24-minute long (yes...the entire thing is 24-minutes long) DVD contents are pretty good, though a bit homespun. The interviews are great since they cover all aspects of CHICAGO -- original 1975 Broadway produciton, the 1995 Encores! Series concert presentation, and the current Broadway revival. Some are new interviews and some are old (like Ann Reinking's), but still very interesting. For those who are going to ask -- nope...unfortunately they don't show any clips/footage of any of the CHICAGO incarnations.

The International performances footage are just short montages of a performance of "All That Jazz", "All I Care About" and "Roxie" from those listed different countries. The entire thing isn't even 5 minutes long, but it's great to watch these numbers in a different language. Bianca Marroquin's "Roxie" (from her run in Mexico) is a definite stand-out. They should have included the entire thing, not just the few seconds.


CHICAGO: 10th Anniversary Edition at AMAZON.com

please oh please oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeease tell me that brooke's roxie includes the monologue

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I really love this! I got it earlier today as well and I enjoyed every second of all the news stuff. The way they did the DVD is really neat. I got it at Borders. $35 and worth every cent.

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I didn't buy it, but saw it in Virgin today for $34.99, for those who are interested.

I'm actually surprised at how reasonably it is priced.

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For two CD's and one DVD it is resonably priced...

BUT

I have to say, the "celebrity" tracks are pretty lackluster in my opinion. For one thing, it sounds like they are singing to some cheap karoke track. No huge drums or horns...it all sounds very ho-hum. Brooke's Roxie is OK but she doesn't say a lot of the dialogue from within the song and the guys don't sing everything either (thereby having several stretches with just music...it sounds odd)
Melanie Griffith's track is terrible...while I think her live was a bit better this is pretty worthless.
Lynda Carter is sorta vanilla as well. Couldn't they have gotten one of their big divas to sing it (Jennifer Holliday, Lillias White, BJ Crosby, Roz Ryan, Carol Woods? Heck...even Angie Stone!)
John O'Hurley's track is better than average.
I enjoyed hearing Kander and Ebb sing but Loopin the Loop was about 1 minute too long.
Why oh WHY didn't they include the Entr'Acte from a live foreign recording?
I have no clue why there are two version of All That Jazz on it...Anna Montanaro's would have sufficed...Ute's version from the OLC is such filler.
I liked that they ended with Nowadays from Gwen and Chita.

If anything, the set is worth it to see some of the excellent photography that has been done in the show over the years. The DVD even has shots from Rita Wilson's run in Chicago so it's pretty up to date.

Anyone who has seen the documentary...doesn't Fran Weissler look positively ghoulish? She actually looks likes she's wearing one of those creepy see-through masks from Alice, Sweet Alice. Her and her husband have obviously used some cash for a few face-lifts...Barry especially...his forehead is pulled so tight I'm sure you could bounce a quarter off of it. (That's mean I know...but also true)

I love Chicago and am glad to add this to my collection...but the live memories will live on longer than Disc 2.

So I bought it. Of course, the cast album is exceptional and ranks with the outstanding original from '75. Any demo with Fred Ebb and John Kander is excellent and Ten Percent and Loopin' the Loop are the highlights of Disc 2. Melaine Griffith sounded laughable. John O'Hurley was nice. Brooke Shields was passing, but not great. I was impressed with Ute Lemper and the quick tempo on her All That Jazz is well suited to the song. Of course, Jerry Orbach, Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera's tracks are wonderful. As for Liza, well, the cheesy 70s orchestration is slightly questionable, though okay. Her vocal performance is nice until the end when she really strains her voice.
The DVD really surprised me. The interviews were rather candid and real. (At least Ann Reinking, John Kander, Walter Bobbie and Bebe Neuwirth's were. Not so much for the Weisslers, but they're producers. What do you expect?) Mr. Kander's retelling of the story of Ten Percent is as amusing and funny as the wonderful song.
Thanks for the reviews guys! You made me a very happy listener.

Well I couldn't find it in new york so I ordered it from Barnes and Noble. If Virgin in Union Sqaure had it, thay ran out really fast.

Wow, that was fast! I just received the set today and the book style packaging is indeed very nice. Gorgeous photos!

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