Chicago

Katharine Mehrling and Ruth Brauer-Kvam - alternating with Maria-Danaé Bansen - are responsible for the perfect illusion of Chicago around 1924 as the unbeatable showgirl duo Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. The two best enemies forever know what it takes to be a real star. Artistic excellence alone does not guarantee fame. Publicity is everything! They would walk over dead bodies to stay in the limelight. Would? Roxie ends up in prison after murdering her cheating lover, where Velma, who caught her sister in flagrante delicto with her lover, is already serving time. And what could make for juicier headlines than a dramatic court case, so wonderfully and tearfully manipulated by Jörn-Felix Alt as the cunning star lawyer Billy Flynn, who is driven to success by delusions of grandeur? When Roxie wins the case with her finely woven web of lies, the next scandalous woman steals the show. The two arch-enemies know that now it's time to stick together! Because two ice-cold sweepers like them on stage together - even Chicago has never experienced that before ...

The story of the two killer ladies Roxie and Velma is true crime in musical format: in the early 1920s, the tingeltang singers Belva Garner and Beulah Annan were on trial in Chicago. Contrary to expectations, they were acquitted in the trial for the murders of their spouses. However, the “jazz butchers” only achieved fame with the help of court reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins. It was she who brought the two artists' skillful play with public attention and stereotypical images of women to the stage as a play in 1926. Her aim: to counter the belief in their innocence. But even a silent film about the trial, which flickered across the screens shortly afterwards, was unable to change the public's conviction of innocence. Without this groundwork, the musical Chicago would probably not have been conceivable, and perhaps not its success either: to this day, the play, which premiered in 1975, is one of the most successful Broadway musicals of all time.

By the way
Chicago is being performed for the last time at the Komische Oper Berlin. If you don't want to miss this sparkling show, you should grab your tickets quickly.