And All That Jazz

MIRAMAX
Catherine Zeta-Jones stars in the movie version of the Broadway play, Chicago

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Various writers tried unsuccessfully to adapt Chicago for the screen, and Hytner eventually dropped out. Madonna also moved on, and Chicago languished until 2000, when Rob Marshall a former Broadway choreographer who had directed Annie on television came up with a new concept. The show would be reshaped so that all the musical numbers would take place as elaborate vaudeville routines in the dreamy imagination of Roxie. "The hardest part about musicals is that scary moment when characters start to sing," says Marshall, who recruited screenwriter Bill Condon (Oscar winner for 1998's Gods and Monsters) to write the script. As the prison matron (Queen Latifah) speaks, Roxie's eyes begin to dance; suddenly, Latifah metamorphoses into a full-bodied chanteuse whose rendition of When You're Good to Mama brings down the house. When Roxie's husband (John C. Reilly) takes the blame for her crime, Roxie's warm thoughts become a love song.

It should come as no surprise that Chicago a seemingly indestructible show-biz property has become a vibrant film. The tale based on the crimes of a couple of real-life celebrity murderesses in the 1920s was first fictionalized in a 1926 Broadway play, which became a silent movie in 1927, then a film starring Ginger Rogers in 1942. The current Broadway revival of the musical recently celebrated its 2,500th performance. This new big-screen version of Chicago restores the old routine of hit Broadway musicals becoming Hollywood movies. In recent years Broadway has taken from Hollywood without giving back, turning movies like The Producers and Hairspray into splashy hit shows. By finally making its way back to the screen, Chicago helps even the score.