PHOTO FLASH! Original 1975 Broadway production of Bob Fosse's CHICAGO! — Page 3

I was 19 in 1975 when I packed 3 amazing shows into one week of theater-going: Monday night at PIPPIN, Wednesday night at CHICAGO, and Saturday matinee at A CHORUS LINE. (Tickets were $15 for Orchestra row M.)

CHICAGO was indeed black as pitch in tone and in look. Tony Walton's sexy set was surrounded by vertical cylinders that occasionally lit up with backlit photo collages of 20's faces. The show deck was another collage of dice and playing cards, also full of embedded uplighting. (You can see a fairly accurate view of the set when Joe Gideon demonstrates the set model for "New York/ LA" in ALL THAT JAZZ.)

I loved the ruined-1920's look of the show, loved the dancing, and loved the wit in the lyrics, but boy was their message bleak. Relentlessly so by the time you got halfway through Act II. I remember just longing for the trial sequence to be OVER! And the unmasking of Mary Sunshine as a man was thrilling and really remarkable back in 1975! (How times have changed.)

Sandwiched between the brilliant (and lovable) Pippin and ACL, Chicago ended up feeling like a shot of bitter black coffee wedged between two yummy ice cream cones. More to be admired than loved. But looking back, I feel incredibly lucky to have seen Verdon, Rivera, Orbach, AND Fosse AND Kander and Ebb at their absolute peaks.

Back during the time of the original production my high school "drama club" (I hate that term now lol) made its yearly trip to New York City and one of the neatest experiences was to tour the set of CHICAGO. Our trips were put together by a company called The Field Studies Center of New York (Backstage on Broadway) and they took care of booking the hotel, theatre tickets, orientation with NYC, discussions with actors currently on Broadway, and theatre tours. They are actually still in business. The best set tour was CHICAGO. We went backstage, under the stage, and on stage. We were basically allowed to roam about the set for a while. I doubt they can do anything like that anymore. I remember being surprised by how many lighting units there were (this was before automated color changers so basically each color had to have its own light), how cramped under the stage was, and how steep the rake of the stage was. The lighting controls were the old piano boards (like pictured here) that were in a tiny small area off stage left. An amazing experience a dammit I didn't have my camera.

I've often wondered if Tony Walton's CHICAGO neon was a wink at Robin Wagner's CHORUS LINE finale panels.

thanks Morosco! great photos :) I love the set model doll version of Gwen lol

I'm not real big on autographed posters per se, but I do have one signed by Verdon, Rivera, Orbach, McCarty and Kander and Ebb. The signatures are now somewhat faded, but my memories of this show are not. At one performance, Verdon handed front-row me the ROXIE ROCKS CHICAGO newspaper, now unfortunately lost.

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Updated On: 4/11/14 at 10:22 PM

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

Remarks like this are how we got the expression, "Children should be seen and not heard."

Very few 20-year-olds have bodies that can compete with those "old women". Almost none can move like they did. I don't think it was part of any concept; Rivera and Verdon were still in their prime, and, yes, I saw the show many times, including once from the front row.

(BTW, THE FABULOUS PALM SPRINGS FOLLIES recently ended a 26-year run with casts of women far older then Verdon or Rivera in 1976. The ladies of the FOLLIES wore body suits underneath, but otherwise their costumes were just as revealing--and, yes, they were in equally good shape.)

Mattbrain said: "Since you've said you're of Argentinean descent, Brody, methinks I can guess which one your mother is...but I won't say "

A well known director and choregrapher! ????