Chicago 50 - No. 28 - When You're Good to Mama

Mary McCarty as Matron Mama Morton

Fosse knew vaudeville. Though he wasn’t born until 1927, when he came of age as a performer in his teens, the people he learned from were all vaudeville veterans, and he danced old vaudeville numbers himself.

A working script of Chicago with lyric changes. Fosee Verdon Collection at Library of Congress.

Almost every song in the show is modeled on an actual vaudeville act or star. When Matron Mama Morton enters, with a big ring and a fur, she’s playing one of the biggest stars of vaudeville, Sophie Tucker, and she sings “When You’re Good to Mama,” a conscious parody of Sophie Tucker’s equally racy “You’ve Got to See Mama Every Night.”

--Inside CHICAGO Background and Analysis by Scott Miller

Marsha Bagwell as Matron Mama Morton. Marsha was the standby for Matron and Mary Sunshine in the original 1975 production. Here she is seen playing the role in a 1985 production in Atlantic City.