What happens in Chicago
Set in 1920s Chicago in the era of Prohibition, the musical follows Roxie Hart, a housewife and aspiring nightclub dancer who shoots her on-the-side lover after he threatens to leave her. Arrested and sent to Cook County Jail, Roxie meets fellow inmate Velma Kelly — a former vaudeville star also awaiting trial for murder — and Matron "Mama" Morton, who runs the women's block as a transactional fiefdom.
Desperate to avoid the death penalty, Roxie hires the city's slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, who specialises in turning his clients' crimes into media spectacles. Across the two acts, Roxie and Velma alternately collaborate and compete for media attention as Flynn manufactures public sympathy through press conferences, dramatic court appearances and outright lies.
The show's central observation — that fame and notoriety in twenties America were essentially interchangeable, and that the legal system was a stage for performance rather than a forum for justice — has aged into uncomfortable contemporary resonance. The numbers come thick and fast: All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, When You're Good to Mama, Mister Cellophane, Razzle Dazzle, We Both Reached for the Gun, and Roxie.
The 1975 original
Chicago premiered on Broadway in 1975 with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Fosse also directed and choreographed. The original production starred Gwen Verdon as Roxie, Chita Rivera as Velma, and Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn. It received mixed reviews and ran for 936 performances — a respectable but unspectacular result, overshadowed by A Chorus Line which opened the same season.
The 1996 revival
The transformative moment came in 1996, when Encores! at New York City Center mounted a concert-style revival directed by Walter Bobbie with choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse. The pared-back staging — actors in black, band on stage, no scenery — exposed the brilliance of Kander and Ebb's score and Fosse's structural genius. The revival transferred to Broadway later that year, won six Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, and has run continuously ever since. It opened in London's West End in 1997 and ran for 15 years at three different theatres.
The 2024/25 UK and Ireland tour
Produced by David Ian for Crossroads Live in association with Barry and Fran Weissler — who have produced the 1996 revival continuously since its New York opening — the 2024/25 tour visited 22 venues across the UK and Ireland from 12 October 2024 to 23 August 2025. The tour opened at Milton Keynes Theatre and closed at the King's Theatre in Glasgow, with stops including Bradford, Newcastle, Manchester, Dartford, Southampton, Stoke, Aberdeen, Cheltenham, Sheffield, Bournemouth, Nottingham, Birmingham, Truro, Llandudno, Cardiff, Canterbury, Bristol, Wimbledon, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Hull, Eastbourne, Norwich, Blackpool, Woking, Sunderland and Crawley.
The film adaptation
The 2002 Rob Marshall film adaptation — starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly — won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968. The film introduced the material to a new generation of audiences and has helped sustain demand for stage tours ever since.
