Chicago (London)

Chicago (West End of London)

Chicago by John Kander and Fred Ebb originally opened at the Adelphi Theatre on November 18, 1997 to rave reviews, winning the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production. It transferred to the Cambridge Theatre in April 2006, then transferred to the Garrick Theatre until September 2012. It’s fifteen year run made Chicago the West End’s longest-running revival.

It was largely a replica of the Broadway revival production opened in London’s West End, Produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, Directed by Walter Bobbie and Designed by John Lee Beatty, with Choreography by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse. Costume Design by William Ivey Long; Lighting Design by Ken Billington and Online marketing by Toby Simkin.

The original cast of the production included German jazz singer Ute Lemper as Velma, British actress Ruthie Henshall as Roxie Hart, Nigel Planer as Amos Hart, and Henry Goodman as Billy Flynn.

Like its Broadway counterpart, the London production featured many celebrities in the starring roles: Marti Pellow, David Hasselhoff, John Barrowman, Tony Hadley, Jerry Springer, Kevin Richardson and Ian Kelsey have all played the role of Billy Flynn. Maria Friedman, Josefina Gabrielle, Denise Van Outen, Claire Sweeney, Linzi Hateley, Frances Ruffelle, Jennifer Ellison, Jill Halfpenny, Brooke Shields, Sally Ann Triplett, Bonnie Langford, Tina Arena, Ashlee Simpson, Aoife Mulholland, Michelle Williams and Christie Brinkley have all played Roxie Hart.

The Broadway theatre supersite Buy Broadway OnlineAs Founder and CEO of Theatre.com and BuyBroadway.com.  The pioneer in moving the Broadway industry onto the internet. The theatre press branded me as “Toby is the man pushing theatre, kicking and screaming, into cyberspace.” What started in 1989 as a Broadway industry service called ShowCall via dialup BBS for members of the League of American Theatre Producers evolved onto the world wide web in the early 90’s, and shortly after this, the vast majority of Broadway shows (starting with my production of Victor/Victoria) and theatrical organizations followed. The “Super site of Broadway” became a publicly traded company, prior to my re-branding it as Theatre.com at the Minskoff Theatre.

The global theater supersite theatre.comDescribed by Variety Magazine as a “marketing powerhouse“, it was the single largest theatre community in the world with over 180,000 active members (in the 1990’s this was massive). From buying official Broadway tickets and souvenirs, providing detailed global show listings, interactive show study & educational guides, live streaming shows and events (including many Opening Nights live broadcasts), industry news from major theatre journalists, pictures and videos, games, messaging directly to Broadway cast’s backstage or even licensing a musical, theatre.com offered it all in a single, easy-to-use interface to theatregoers globally.

CHICAGO

Chicago London Poster Chicago London Poster 1 Chicago London Programme Adelphi Chicago London Garrick Art Chicago London Adelphi Theatre Chicago London cambridge razzle dazzle Chicago London Garrick Chicago London 45 Chicago London 67

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