Does this bother anyone else?

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:10pm

Chicago Live!

Now that the movie has become so popular, they are calling the stage musical that. Don't you think that the stage version should be Chicago and the movie should be Chicago the Movie?

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:12pm

Yeah. That would make sense, considering it began on the stage. But they probably figure they'll get more people that way, since a lot more people probably have heard of Ms. Zeta-Jones and her Oscar rather than the musical that Bebe Neuworth revived.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:15pm

I completely understand, it just seems, well...unfair.

[JakeB]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:15pm

Not really, it's just so people don't confuse a theatre with a cinema (sorry, British talk) and say 'oh I've seen that film'. People might mistake it for a cinema marquee. It also gives the show a bit more zing being 'live!'.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:20pm

Like I said, I completely understand. It just seems like the original should keep it's original name.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:23pm

Does it actually say this on the marquee?

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:25pm

No, they are just starting to advertise the show like that.

[Chevstriss]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:28pm

It bothers me more that, ever since the movie, the two murderesses will no longer be cast as "ladies of a certain age" a la Rivera, Verdon, Reinking, Neuwirth. Rather they will be now be forever cast as sweet young things barely pushing 30. Even theatres out in the boonies are casting Zellweger/Zeta-Jones types.

The whole "Me & My Baby" number is simply not funny unless done by a menopausal female.

I waited all my professional life to be old enough to play a lead in Chicago, and suddenly I'm 15 yrs too old to be submitted.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:32pm

This is true... we are seeing the stage version being transformed into the film......

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:40pm

Follow the money . . . as sad as that is. Chevstriss, you have my sincerest sympathy - that truly must be awful to watch - and your frustration and disgust are absolutely justified. I suppose there was no reason to think that theatre would be spared this incessant insistance on youth.

[Kelliexo90]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:42pm

Yeah that sucks. Hopefully it won't happen with other shows being made into films.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 4:50pm

i wouldn't read too much into it. i think they just wanted to differentiate the live show from the film to avoid confusion. it may seem like an easy enough thing to figure out but never underestimate the public's ability to get things wrong. after all, the movie played in thousands of theatres while the live version is only in a few locations.

it makes sense for the stage show to add "LIVE" because there are likely to be confused tourists wandering into the theatre thinking they are screening the Academy Award winning movie. I doubt anyone has gone into a movie theatre advertising "CHICAGO" and thought they were at the live version.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 6:33pm

If I saw "CHICAGO LIVE" advertised, I'd wonder:

Will they open with "Beginnings"

Will they do "Color My World" as an encore?

Does anybody really know what time it is?

Does anybody really care?

Does anybody still wear a hat?

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 6:42pm

When ever I mention CHICAGO my dad still thinks I'm talking about the band he listened to when he was... well, I guess he STILL listens to them.

They shoud just say CHICAGO THE MUSICAL or the RAZZLE-DAZZLE BROADWAY MUSICAL, I don't like CHICAGO LIVE, because THAT too, could be confusing for people like my dad... lol. But, the musical is way better than the film so I encourage confusion. If someone pays $80 thinking they are going to see the movie, they have other problems besides this... Updated On: 7/31/04 at 06:42 PM

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:00pm

Jon-I'll drink to that.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:17pm

Well, it is CHICAGO, and yes, it is "Live!"

So it's not false advertsing or anything.

They just want to make sure some bozo doesn't think s/he's seeing a movie. For $100.

[BroadwayDiva]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:18pm

People will think a lot of strange things-- without it saying "LIVE", people may think that they're just seeing the movie staged. But, of course, it's a lot of different.

[Roxie]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:20pm

I have lots of thoughts on this topic bacause this spring I was in the stage version of Chicago. (The good one if i say so myself) As an amateur, yet very talented, company in a smallish city, anything that will get people from the community out into theatres is a bonus therefore the box office hit Chicago did this for our musical causing it to be sold out. I feel that if the movies are getting poeple into Broadway shows then that's great. The whole "Chicago Live" thing was new to me and I think that's a bit weird. The only thing that REALLY bothers me is people thinking that the B'way show was made after the movie ahhh! Ignorance. And although I'm not a menopausal women, well like 30 years from it, I sang My Baby and Me lol.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 7:37pm

"Chicago LIVE" sounds really odd to me. It has connotations of "Chicago - Live on Ice!" or something to that effect. Of course Chicago is live; it's the movie that's taped.

[FosseBoi]

Posted: 7/31/04 at 10:24pm

"Chicago Live" sounds like one of those theme park shows to me. I HATE it!!!!!

[broadwaysweetheart]

Posted: 8/1/04 at 2:27am

I don't like it either, and I agree with all of you about the casting choices....

[CJR]

Posted: 8/1/04 at 2:44am

Im pretty sure it's only the tour being billed this way.... everything I've gotten for the Broadway show lately has still been billed "Chicago the Musical" ... the closest I've come to "Chicago Live!" is "Chicago Live on Broadway." In addition, some ads for Chicago were done as "Chicago Live on Broadway" before the movie came out.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 8/1/04 at 3:04am

what i'm waiting for is "chicago- on ICE!"

[broadwaybaby654]

Posted: 8/1/04 at 3:24am

I'm a huge hypocrite when it comes to the subject of musicals being turned into movies. I think that it's great to mainstream these wonderful masterpieces to the public but, I hate when people think that they are experts on the musicals just by seeing the movie. For example, I was a huge fan of Chicago before the movie came out, it was one of my favorite musicals. When I would sing these songs in front of my peers, they would say things like, stop singing that musical crap and listen to somthing popular. Well, a year later they all were singing that "musical crap" and loving it. I asked a girl "what's your favorite song from Chicago? Mines "Class"." She said ,"Class?, I think you have your musicals mixed up. That song is not in Chicago. But my favorite song is "all that jazz"." How many times have we all heard that song when the movie was out? I became sick of the overplay that whole soundtrack(yes, soundtrack..it's a movie) got. I'm worried that when "The Phantom of the Opera" comes out, it will get overplayed too. It is my all time favorite musical. I really don't want to get sick of it.

Posted: 8/1/04 at 5:29am

Yeah, ive only seen this for the tour.