" Maurine Watkins started writing Chicago, subtitled 'A Satirical Comedy in Three Acts,' as a project for a writing class she was taking at Yale University. The play opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on December 20, 1926. It was called 'an overnight hit' in New York, where it ran for 127 performances. In an era when theaters tended to turn over shows far more quickly, that was enough to be considered a substantial hit. The show earned as much as $20,000 a week--or