"Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery—all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts."
So begins the musical Chicago—and creators John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse never back off from that bold and ominous promise. Chicago is filled with fantasy, danger, dazzle, style, and a great deal of humor. The most captivating aspect of Chicago is that the musical is both glamorous and thematically rich and it never fails to entertain an audience. This is undoubtedly the reason Chicago has become the longest-running musical in Broadway history.
The musical Chicago is based on true events by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, who was assigned to cover the 1924 trials of accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. In the early 1920s, Chicago's press and the public became riveted by the subject of homicides committed by women. Several high-profile cases arose, which generally involved women killing their lovers or husbands. These cases were tried against a backdrop of changing views of women in the Jazz Age, and a long string of acquittals by Cook County juries of women murderesses. A lore arose that, in Chicago, feminine or attractive women could not be convicted.
This year, as you can imagine, has been a year like none other in our theatre department, but we made a commitment to making theatre magic happen. This cannot happen without an amazing group of supporters, cast, and crew members. I would like to thank the AHS administration team for their support and recognizing the importance of theatre in the lives of our students, the ARTSA board and parent volunteers for their countless hours of volunteering and flexibility, my production team (Bree Nieves, Jeff Costello, and Anna Mechling) for their creativity and doing whatever it takes to make this year a success for our students, my partner in crime and co-director, Michelle Levesque, for always being my sounding board and taking this musical journey with me every year, and to the enthusiastic and talented cast and crew for trusting us to lead you through this process. Finally, I would like to especially thank our thespian class of 2021. Your resilience and leadership are what has made our 2020-2021 season a success. Thank you for your honesty, passion, energy, and determination this year. You truly made me a better teacher and director.
Chicago has been a dream show of mine to direct since college. It brings everything you want and more, and I cannot bring to words how proud I am of the work that the entire company has done on this show.
Enjoy the "Razzle Dazzle".....Enjoy the show!
