A name flashed fat across a tabloid front page; or highlighted in blue in a status above a headline illuminated on the modern day newsstand that is your Facebook news feed.
An article shared by hundreds, bickered over by thousands, seen by millions. An eponymous offender shoved into the spotlight; immortalised and pigeonholed by facts that aren’t... for a couple of blinks at least, or a hashtag and a mention in the trending bar at most. And all that jazz.
The reason Chicago is the longest running American musical in the history of the West End and broadway is because it’s been able to stay relevant. The influence of tabloid fodder as a vehicle for the everyday celebrity, and their tendency to then reduce that 15 minutes of fame to a mere two or three, has made certain of that. It's arguably more relevant now than it ever has been before.
You can say that there’s less of the razzle dazzle these days, but then again, someone somewhere thought it’d be a good idea to give Katie Hopkins a newspaper column and a radio show. The illogical injustices and backhand, underground thinking that ran through Chicago is alive and unwell today.
But of course that’s not the only appeal of Chicago – the musical story of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, two murderesses awaiting trial in prohibition-era 1920s Chicago, each with their heads in the clouds and their eyes full of stars placed by the fickle, flirtatious, smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn.
After all, who doesn’t love a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery? The modern audience eat it up as quickly now as newspaper readers did back in the 20s.
An article shared by hundreds, bickered over by thousands, seen by millions. An eponymous offender shoved into the spotlight; immortalised and pigeonholed by facts that aren’t... for a couple of blinks at least, or a hashtag and a mention in the trending bar at most. And all that jazz.
The reason Chicago is the longest running American musical in the history of the West End and broadway is because it’s been able to stay relevant. The influence of tabloid fodder as a vehicle for the everyday celebrity, and their tendency to then reduce that 15 minutes of fame to a mere two or three, has made certain of that. It's arguably more relevant now than it ever has been before.
You can say that there’s less of the razzle dazzle these days, but then again, someone somewhere thought it’d be a good idea to give Katie Hopkins a newspaper column and a radio show. The illogical injustices and backhand, underground thinking that ran through Chicago is alive and unwell today.
But of course that’s not the only appeal of Chicago – the musical story of Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, two murderesses awaiting trial in prohibition-era 1920s Chicago, each with their heads in the clouds and their eyes full of stars placed by the fickle, flirtatious, smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn.
After all, who doesn’t love a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery? The modern audience eat it up as quickly now as newspaper readers did back in the 20s.
RSS Feed
