Liza in "Nowadays" “When you love people, I think you help out, if you can.” — Liza on joining “Chicago” Just two months after Chicago opened in June of 1975, Gwen lost her voice. Marsha Bagwell relates the story that she took Gwen to her own renowned ENT where he recommended surgery to explore the issue. During surgery, the ENT found a single piece of confetti that had landed on her vocal chord and adhered to it, causing a blister. Marsha explained that during the finale whe

Bob and Gwen on opening night. Photos by Martha Swope. Of opening night: “The audience adored it—they even applauded when the lights first went down—and there are things, very very positive things, for everyone to adore, not least the performers. Both the girls dance their hearts out, together, singly, or leading the splendid band of gypsies who make up most of the rest of the cast. Miss Verdon’s voice, all candy innocence and yet somehow naughtily suggestive of untold viciou

"Bobby had the audacity to present us as 'poetry in motion, two moving as one.' Each of our movements was perfectly matched to the microsecond. We went all-out on 'Hot Honey Rag,' as the emcee announced: 'Okay, let's pick up the pace, let's shake the blues away, let's make the party longer, the skirts shorter and shorter, let's make the music hotter. Let's all go to town in a fast car and keep it hot!' "And we did, changing into fringed skirts that whipped around in time to t

Chita and Gwen perform the new finale: Nowadays Chita: "Bobby and Freddy had always struggled with how to end Chicago. After Roxie is acquitted in her trial and Velma in hers (offstage), they put together a vaudeville act to take advantage of their notoriety. When Velma suggests the merger, Roxie has a ready answer: 'You're forgetting one thing. We hate each other.' Velma replies, 'Yeah, but there's only one business where that doesn't matter.' True. Like I said, Bobby was so

Original finale of Chicago Chita: "Bobby [Fosse] and Freddy [Ebb] had always struggled with how to end Chicago. After Roxie is acquitted in her trial and Velma in hers (offstage), they put together a vaudeville act to take advantage of their notoriety. When Velma suggests the merger, Roxie has a ready answer: 'You're forgetting one thing. We hate each other.' Velma replies, 'Yeah, but there's only one business where that doesn't matter.' True. Like I said, Bobby was so good a

Mary McCarty and Chita Rivera. Kander: Writing “Class” was fun in that way where we were able to just let go. Ebb: That was a duet for Velma and the prison matron. After we had written it, I remember having serious second thoughts about the number. Ebb: I almost talked myself out of that one. Funny songs actually terrify me. I'm at a loss there because very seldom do I think what I've written is funny. I would have cut "Class" in two minutes from my own fear of it before I

“‘When Velma Takes the Stand’ and the entire courtroom scene is an imitation of the many courtroom comedy sketches, a staple of vaudeville and burlesque. ‘When Velma Takes the Stand’ is also modeled on the many vaudeville acts that showcased the latest dance crazes, in this case, the Charleston. Denounced by moralists as the devil’s dance, the dance from hell, and other similar names, the Charleston found its roots in African dance and became popular in the American South aro

Photo by Martha Swope, 1975 “My Own Best Friend” was originally intended to be a solo for Gwen, but Gwen, being a dancer first, didn’t feel her voice had the strength to sustain the audience’s attention with a vocal solo at the end of Act 1, so she requested that it be a duet for her and Chita. When Liza stepped into the role of Roxie while Gwen was out with vocal problems, the number was turned back into a solo for Liza who had a stronger voice, and who the audience wanted t

From Chita Rivera's memoir: "One afternoon, Bobby was choreographing ‘I Can't Do It Alone.’ It's the number in the show when Velma, 'in an act of desperation,' tries to persuade Roxie to take her on as a vaudeville partner once they're sprung from jail. Bobby had me dancing on a chair for what seemed an eternity. The movements were small and subtle. "‘Make it less, Chita, less,’ he kept repeating. At one point, I wondered whether I was moving at all. Finally, on a break an

In the scene that leads up to Matron Mama Morton’s song, “When You’re Good to Mama,”  Velma says, “Mama, I always wanted to play Big Jim Colisimo’s. Could you get me that?” Matron: “Big Jim’s! Well now, that’s another story,. That might take another phone call.” Have you ever wondered who Big Jim Colisimo is? Well he was real! Big Jim Colisimo Colisimo was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who built a criminal empire in  Chicago  based on prostitution, gambling and  racke

Lenora Nemetz was the original standby for Gwen and Chita in Chicago. Below she tells the story of her audition, and when she made her Roxie debut during the out-of-town try-out in Philadelphia. “My friend Norman in Pittsburgh sent my picture to Bob Fosse, and he wrote back and told me to come in for an audition. Do you know what happened? I got on the wrong plane. I actually got on a place to Chicago. Then I got off and got a place to New York. Well, I auditioned for Bob and

Chita Rivera. Photo by Martha Swope, 1975 "At the beginning of almost every performance of Chicago, when the stage manager called ‘Places, please,’ I took my position in an elevator in the basement below the playing area. It would whisk me, standing in a large cylindrical drum, up to center stage to begin the show. Before that, however, I paced the floor, giving myself a pep talk. "Invariably, the stagehands asked, ‘Who you gonna be tonight, Chita?’ Of course, my first obli

"I always thought that I could have made a good criminal defense lawyer. (I'm addicted to watching crime shows on TV.) Velma in Chicago was just the type of person I would have wanted to have as a client. People often asked me if I ever wanted to play Roxie, her rival in the Cook County jail. The short answer is ‘no.' Roxie's cute and conniving, and though I got the chance to play her a couple of times, she will always belong to Gwen. Velma is my kind of girl because she's a

John Kander and Fred Ebb. Photo by Martha Swope. John Kander and Fred Ebb were a music and lyrics team who had worked together on Flora, The Red Menace (1965), Cabaret (1966), The Happy Time (1968), Zorba (1968) and 7 0, Girls, 70 (1971). They joined the creative team for Chicago in with Bob Fosse. John wrote the music, and Fred wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book with Bob. After Chicago (1975) they were known for The Act (1978), The Rink (1984), Kiss of the Spide

Belva Gaertner Belva Gaertner was a 40-year-old 3-time divorcee when she fatally shot her lover, Walter Law, a married man with a toddler at home, in the front seat of a sedan. When taken in to custody she claimed to have been too drunk to know whether or not she had killed the man. Her exact words were, "I don't know. I was drunk." "For three months, automobile salesman Walter Law, and Belva spent their nights together visiting Chicago nightclubs and drinking illegal liquor.