8 / 10
Chicago is Rob Marshall’s 2002 American musical adapting the 1975 John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse stage musical, which itself adapted the 1926 Maurine Dallas Watkins play. The film depicts murderess Roxie Hart and her rivalry with vaudeville performer Velma Kelly while both await trial for separate killings in 1920s Chicago. Renée Zellweger plays Roxie Hart. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma Kelly. Richard Gere plays defense attorney Billy Flynn. Queen Latifah plays prison matron Mama Morton. John C. Reilly plays Roxie’s husband Amos Hart. Christine Baranski plays reporter Mary Sunshine. Lucy Liu plays Kitty Baxter. The screenplay was written by Bill Condon. The film was produced by Miramax on a budget of approximately 45 million dollars and grossed approximately 307 million dollars worldwide. The work won six Academy Awards including Best Picture.
The film is the principal commercial success of the early 2000s American musical revival and the film that demonstrated the genre could function as serious adult entertainment after decades of marginalization. The Marshall direction employs the Fosse-derived approach of separating the musical numbers from the dramatic scenes by setting them in Roxie’s imagination. The cast performed all their own singing. Zeta-Jones won Best Supporting Actress. The work proved commercially viable in a way that prevailing wisdom had said American musicals could not be after the 1970s. The result is the rare modern American musical that succeeded with both critics and mass audiences.
The Imagination Frame
Marshall set every musical number inside Roxie Hart’s imagination rather than in the diegetic reality of the film. This borrowed from Fosse’s Cabaret approach while modifying it for the source. Roxie imagines herself on a vaudeville stage every time the story would conventionally call for a musical number. This solved the modern musical’s central problem. Contemporary audiences had grown resistant to characters breaking into song. Setting numbers inside imagination resolved the resistance.
The imagination frame also served the film’s satire about celebrity. Roxie pursues fame through her trial. She imagines herself as a vaudeville star. The framing technique reinforces the film’s argument that her notion of justice is entirely about whether the trial produces fame. The structural choice supports the thematic argument. Each musical number is also evidence that Roxie’s mental life consists primarily of fantasies of celebrity.
For Writers
Structural choices can serve thematic arguments. The same applies to fiction. The form of your work should support the content. Decisions about how you tell the story carry meaning the story itself cannot deliver.
The Cell Block Tango
The Cell Block Tango number runs approximately seven minutes and depicts six imprisoned women explaining their murders. The choreography references Fosse trademark movements including angular hand positions, controlled breaks, and isolated body parts. The lyrics combine confession with rhythmic chant. The visual design uses red lighting and prison bars. The number became the film’s defining sequence.
Zeta-Jones leads the number while playing Velma Kelly in the immediate frame. The other prisoners include actresses who would not otherwise have been cast in major American musicals. The number gives each woman a specific monologue about her crime. The film allows the ensemble work to develop individual characters rather than treating chorus members as anonymous. The choreography reinforces the principle that each woman’s story matters even when she occupies background position.
For Writers
Ensemble work succeeds when individual contributors receive their own moments. The result carries over to fiction. Background characters whose specifics emerge clearly serve this film better than anonymous functional figures.
The Razzle Dazzle
Gere’s performance as Billy Flynn culminates in the Razzle Dazzle number where he explains his courtroom strategy as theatrical performance. The lyrics directly state that legal procedure is entertainment and that trials are productions that lawyers stage for jury audiences. The argument the film develops without subtext is that the American legal system reads as theater rather than justice mechanism.
The satire applies equally to the modern era. The film was released in 2002 while major American attention focused on celebrity trials including the recently concluded O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake cases. The 1920s setting allowed the satire to operate without seeming to target particular current cases. The work demonstrated that period material can comment on contemporary conditions more effectively than direct contemporary engagement. The audience receives the argument without feeling lectured.
For Writers
Period settings can deliver contemporary arguments that direct contemporary settings cannot. The same applies to fiction. The historical frame gives readers space to receive criticism they would resist in present-tense form.
Craft Note
Marshall had been a Broadway choreographer before directing Chicago. The film was his directorial debut. The combination of Broadway musical experience and limited film direction history produced a result that experienced film directors had not been able to deliver during the previous two decades of musical revival attempts. The decision to cast actors who could sing rather than singers who could act paid off through performances that engaged dramatic content as well as musical content.
Verdict
Chicago is the principal commercial success of the early 2000s American musical revival and this film that demonstrated the genre’s viability for adult audiences. The imagination frame solved the modern musical’s central problem. The Cell Block Tango is one of the great choreographic sequences in modern American film. The Razzle Dazzle satire engages American legal celebrity in ways subsequent films have not matched. Recommended for anyone interested in modern American musicals or in the early-2000s revival.
FAQ
Did the actors do their own singing?
Yes. Zellweger, Zeta-Jones, Gere, Reilly, and Queen Latifah all sang their own parts. The casting prioritized actors who could carry vocal performances rather than singers who needed acting coaching.
How does the film compare to the stage musical?
The film follows the stage musical’s structure closely. The imagination frame is the principal addition. The stage musical occurs on a single performance stage. The film moves between Roxie’s imagination and the realistic settings.
Why did the musical revival succeed when previous attempts failed?
The combination of imagination framing, strong source material, and acting-first casting addressed problems that prior revival attempts had not solved. Chicago demonstrated the approach. Subsequent films could follow the model.
How does the runtime function?
The film runs approximately one hour fifty-three minutes. The compressed runtime supports the satirical content while allowing the musical numbers to develop.
What is the cultural impact of the film?
Substantial sustained impact through musical revival, Broadway-to-film adaptation practice, and ongoing work with the celebrity-trial subject.
Should I watch the 1942 Ginger Rogers film Roxie Hart?
The 1942 William Wellman film adapts the same source play without the musical numbers. Watching it provides context for what the musical adaptation added. Both films justify engagement.