Backstage at Broadway: Celebrating 20 Years of Chicago The Musical

Celebrating 20 years of razzle dazzle, the Broadway fixture Chicago The Musical continues to wow audiences across the country. For our Broadway Balances America series, correspondent Amber Milt goes behind the scenes with the creative team, former leading ladies — and actually makes a cameo in the show as one of the cell block girls! For a show that stands chin-deep in dirty deeds, it’s one heck of a good time.

Set in The Windy City during the Roaring Twenties, Chicago tells the story of two rival vaudevillian murderesses locked up in Cook County Jail. Nightclub star Velma’s serving time for killing her husband and sister after finding the two in bed together. Driven chorus girl Roxie’s been tossed in the joint for bumping off the lover with whom she’s been cheating on her husband. Not one to rest on her laurels, Velma enlists the help of prison matron Mama Morton and slickster lawyer Billy Flynn, who turn Velma’s incarceration into a murder-of-the-week media frenzy, thus preparing the world for a splashy showbiz comeback. But Roxie’s got some of her own tricks up her sleeve.