A sultry spectacle of dance, drama, and jazz

One of Broadway's longest-running musicals, Chicago, to return to Chinese stages this October, Chen Nan reports.

The Broadway musical Chicago plans to captivate audiences in China with dazzling performances and sultry jazz. An upcoming tour, which will kick off in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, this October, will include visits to 11 cities, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi'an and Chongqing, for a 70-show run.

Director and choreographer Bob Fosse first had a vision for Chicago in 1975, when he obtained the copyright to the book by Maurine Watkins, and joined forces with composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb to create the initial version of the musical.

The show ran for about 600 performances until 1979. It was revived on Broadway in 1996, and then a year later in the West End. The famous tale of love, murder and corruption holds the record for one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.

Set in 1920s Chicago, and based on real-life murders and trials, it follows Roxie Hart, a wannabe vaudeville star who murders her lover and is arrested. In jail, Hart meets her hero, the famed nightclub performer Velma Kelly, who is serving time for killing her husband and sister after finding the two in bed together. When they both land the same lawyer, tensions come to a head as they vie for the media spotlight.

Since 1996, the musical has toured 38 countries and has been performed more than 35,000 times, attracting some 34 million people. Honored with six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and a Grammy, it made its debut in China in 2018, visiting five cities, according to Yang Hongya, deputy general manager of One World Culture Communication, a Beijing-headquartered company, which is the organizer of the upcoming tour.

"The musical market in China is growing fast. When we brought the cast members over to take photos in Beijing, many fans recognized them," Yang said at the announcement for the tour on Aug 23. It will play 14 shows at Beijing's Century Theater from Nov 14 to 24.

"Although almost 30 years have passed since it was revived, it's still the one musical with everything: a universal tale of fame, fortune, and all that jazz, with one show-stopping song after another and the most astonishing dancing you've ever seen," says Yang.