Chicago
D. Terry Williams Theatre
April 1-2, 8 p.m.
$20 general admission
wmich.edu/theatre/2009/05/Chicago, (269) 387-3220

"He had it coming," so gleefully proclaim the six "merry murderesses" in Chicago. The hit musical follows two women charged with murder through the criminal justice system. Set in the Windy City during Prohibition, Chicago is based on a play written by Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins.

"She covered a lot of sensational crime," explains Jay Berkow, director of Western Michigan University's upcoming production. "She also covered two women in particular who killed their lovers, and, in doing so, showed not a whole lot of repentance but got a lot of press."

The plot of Chicago is based on these women and their shared obsession of becoming stars, even as they are arrested, jailed, and preparing for trial.

"[Watkins] found it interesting that these women became media sensations," Berkow said. "Her articles became very, very popular and so did the women whose cases she was reporting on."

The women were both acquitted even though it was fairly obvious that they had, in fact, committed the crimes. Watkins wrote a satirical comedy based on the women that ran on Broadway for a year. Chicago was adapted by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse in the 1970s and resurfaced. Since then it has played more than 5,400 performances.

Berkow believes the social and cultural landscape of the musical are familiar ones.

"The two women are jazz babies with show-biz fantasies. Vaudeville was the most commercial form of entertainment, much like television today. In the ‘20s, we were a society who sensationalized criminals," Berkow said. "For some reason — and no one knows why — the American public is obsessed with making stars of scandalized people."

He quickly lists a number of well-known names. Chicago, as he reads it, is a "satire about the public's obsession with these unrepentant scandal crimes."

Berkow attributes the successful revival of Chicago in the 1970s to the "explosion of tabloid media, everything from actual tabloids to 24-hour news coverage to blogs. We have an insatiable desire for scandal, and we can't seem to stop it ...We're responsible for making them stars."

The production WMU's Department of Theatre will be performing is in the round, meaning the audience will be on all four sides of the stage. The sets, costumes and personalities are all over-the-top, and each number of the score is performed as a vaudeville act. Berkow says his choreographer is "challenging the students in ways they've never experienced before," resulting in "full, incredible … sexy musical numbers."

"It should be a really fun time. It's sexy, naughty and truly biting satire. As Mae West said, ‘When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.'"