CHICAGO...and Vaudeville / Burlesque

My father said, "Don't go to a burlesque show,

You'll see things you shouldn't see."

    And he was right,

    For the very next night,

I saw Father in the row in front of me.

Burlesque legend The Fabulous Zorita

When the musical version of Watkins play was created, an additional element was incorporated into the story:  Vaudeville.  John Kander (composer), Fredd Ebb (lyricist) and Bob Fosse (director) intentionally created songs and dance numbers meant to invoke the past legends of Vaudeville and Burlesque as the vehicle to tell this seedy story of murder and glitz.  

Fosse as 1/2 of The Riff Brothers, frequently booked into Vaudeville houses

Fosse as "The Snake"  in The Little Prince.  

     In CHICAGO, the vaudeville is a metaphor for the American justice system in which the best performance wins over the press and the jury.  The ...concept was perfectly wedded to the theme of CHICAGO.  Vaudeville producers willfully featured notorious, even criminal figures and freak acts.  By superimposing a vaudeville framework onto Watkin's comedy, Ebb implicitly linked showbiz to the tawdry...practices of the press and the corruption of the American justice system.

                                                                                                James Leve

                                                                                                              KANDER AND EBB      
   

John Kander and Fred Ebb.  

                                                                                      

Depending on which biography you read, there are differing opinions on the degree which Ebb and Fosse each contributed to the Vaudeville concept.  Ebb had tried it before with 70, GIRLS, 70 so he was no stranger to the milieu.  One thing that is undeniable, however, is Fosse's familiarity with the seedier side of Vaudeville - Burlesque, and how that relationship would shape CHICAGO the musical.


    (At 16) Bob had already developed a healthy enthusiasm for striptease dancers and would regularly sneak into Minsky's Burlesque.  It was at Minsky's that he discovered a lower type of comedy act and broader performance values, the pratfalls and and slapstick of burlesque routines.  

                                                                                            Martin Gottfried

                                                                                                                                                                   ALL HIS JAZZ

While I certainly don't want you to do impressions of any of the old vaudeville performers, I do think its interesting and contextually helpful to see and hear the original routines / songs upon which the musical numbers in CHICAGO are based.  

Here are a few, with links...

1.  FUNNY HONEY - Helen Morgan's rendition of "Bill" from SHOWBOAT

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HeasqkO1Ko

2.  MR CELLOPHANE - Black Vaudeville star Bert William's signature song "Nobody"

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cruhh2ikw4A

     This is a contemporary performer doing an impression of Bert - the song starts at 1:29

3.  WHEN YOU'RE GOOD TO MOMMA - Sophie Tucker's "You Got To See Momma Every Night"
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Nhy5tIpPM

4.  ALL I CARE ABOUT - Bandleader Ted Lewis "Is Everybody Happy?"
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WADhw1temyM
     The song starts at .48.  This one's kinda fun - inexplicably, there's a full big band in tuxedos on a
     Pirate ship.

5.  Fan Dance - Sally Rand
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTEIWK9CaEs

6.  A LITTLE BIT OF GOOD - Drag Burlesque star Julian Eltinge
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4e-n_BI8os

7.  ME AND MY BABY - Eddie Cantor "My Baby Says Yes Yes!"
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8LVjm36RNs