PHOTO FLASH! Original 1975 Broadway production of Bob Fosse's CHICAGO!

For those curious ones... here are photos of the original 1975 Broadway production of Bob Fosse's CHICAGO.

And yes... you're welcome.



Model of Tony Walton's set design:


"All That Jazz" (Chita Rivera):


"Funny Honey" (Gwen Verdon):


"Cell Block Tango" (yup... my mom is in that group):


"We Want Billy" (yup... my mom is in this group as well):


"All I Care About" (Jerry Orbach):


"A Little Bit of Good" (M. O'Haughey):


"We Both Reached for the Gun":


"Roxie":




"I Can't Do it Alone":


"My Own Best Friend":


"Me and My Baby":


"Mister Cellophane" (Barney Martin):


"When Velma Takes the Stand":


"Razzle Dazzle":


The Trial Scene:


"Class" (Mary McCarty):


"Nowadays" (okay, I couldn't locate a photo of Gwen and Chita in this costume so for your enjoyment... here are their replacements from 1977: Ann Reinking and Lenora Nemetz!):


"R.S.V.P./Keep it Hot" aka "The Hot Honey Rag":


BONUS:

During the out-of-town tryouts they experimented with the costumes for the newly added "The Hot Honey Rag" number (which replaced "Loopin' the Loop"). They ended-up using the one posted above with the white tassles:



From out-of-town: The Finale' (before they threw the REAL roses out into the audience):


The June 1975 issue of AFTER DARK Magazine:

looks fun, thanks!

"I like the set model, but there's something disturbing about old women in skanky outfits."

Wasn't that a deliberate decision in the original production? The fact that you feel disturbed was how the production team wanted you to respond.

Brody: if your Mom is one of the cell block tango women, she's presumably on the OBC - which is her line?

That set is very cool

Fosse's skanky sleazy CHICAGO was fantastic.

Great pixs! its really interesting to see how much of the looks of the characters were brought into the Rob Marshall movie!

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*Poof!* (duplicate post)

Updated On: 11/25/08 at 09:58 PM

Brody: These photos are awesome!! Thank you for sharing! I'm so curious now about your mom. Which one is she?

"I like the set model, but there's something disturbing about old women in skanky outfits.'

Well I give credit to any woman who can have bodies like that at their age, dance better than any chorus cutie, and bring the house down by uttering a simple phrase or verse.

True Brody, but Madonna, Rivera, Verdon and Neuwirth are/were not the norm. Most women over 40 don't come close to those babes !

Both Velma and Roxie should have some mileage on them. Neither is a fresh young ingenue or a hot young babe. They've both been through the mill and have a desperate edge when they get their unexpected crime-driven renaissance.

Gwen Verdon
Chita Rivera
Jerry Orbach
Barney Martin
Mary McCarty
et al.

Was the original CHICAGO's cast the best ever assembled for a musical? Is there even another candidate?

As for the age of the stars, you are looking at still photos. The poster who said Velma and Roxie aren't supposed to be dewy-eyed young things is correct. But I was about 21 when it opened, saw the show many times, and I never thought of either woman as "old". On stage, they were so limber and energetic it really prevented you from thinking of them as middle-aged.

Updated On: 3/8/13 at 06:53 PM

The first time I saw it I did, Eric. My response was to admire the cast and the "razzle dazzle", but think "If you really believe people are so awful, then suicide would be more productive than writing a musical." (Let's all remember this was long before O.J.'s trial, much less Jody Arias'. Celebrity defendants getting off by means of publicity wasn't nearly so common (or so it seemed).)

I saw it a second time when Lenora Nemetz was on for Rivera. I thought the show improved, because Nemetz was great but not nearly as intense as Rivera and the entire evening seemed less aggressive.

The third time I saw it, Rivera was back, but I had an better understanding of the show and I could just marvel at the performances (particularly Rivera's).

By then I was hooked and didn't worry about the overkill the rest of the times I saw it.

But looking back, I think it was less the writing than the directing. Fosse just couldn't stop spewing bile and choices such as having the jury played by one actor with 12 grotesque masks--clever as it may sound--were just too much.

Which isn't to say I wasn't also awestruck by much of his staging!