75th Academy Awards · 2003
Chicago
Directed byCooked up by Rob Marshall
“If you can't be famous, be infamous.”
“Jail but make it a Broadway PR era 💅🎶”
The storyThe lore 📖
Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
It's the 1920s jazz era and Roxie Hart is DELULU about becoming a famous singer. When she lands in jail for a very sus crime, she meets rival inmate Velma Kelly and a slick lawyer who turns her trial into a full PR era. Fame, headlines, and razzle-dazzle — the musical numbers ate and left no crumbs 🎤✨
What critics & audiences sayThe receipts 🧾
Tomatometer
87%
Fresh
#71 of 98 winnersFamous linesLines living rent free
Roxie: It'll never work.
Velma: Why not?
Roxie: Because I hate you.
Velma: There's only one business where that's no problem at all.
They'd love you a lot more if you were hanged. You know why? Because it would sell more papers. That's Chicago.
In this town, murder's a form of entertainment.
My audience loves me. And I love them. … And that's cause none of us got enough love in our childhoods. And that's showbiz, kid.
It's all a circus, kid. A three ring circus. These trials - the whole world - all showbusiness.
Don't forget Billy Flynn's number one client is... Billy Flynn.
Billy: Well, is she or isn't she?
Doctor: She is.
Billy: I see. And would you swear to that in court?
Doctor: Yes.
Billy: Good. Button your fly.
This is Chicago, kid. You can't beat fresh blood on the walls.
And then I started foolin' around... and then I started screwin' around, which is foolin' around without dinner.
I bet you want to know why I shot the bastard?
Quotes via Wikiquote
Filming locationsWhere they shot it 📍
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Osgoode Hall
Toronto, Ontario
The historic law building provided the setting for the courthouse scene.
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Casa Loma
Toronto, Ontario
The Gothic Revival castle was one of the Toronto locations used during principal photography.
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Elgin Theatre
Toronto, Ontario
This historic theatre was among the sites used for the musical's Toronto shoot.
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Gooderham and Worts Distillery
Toronto, Ontario
The former distillery complex was one of the Toronto locations used for scenes in the film.
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Union Station
Toronto, Ontario
Toronto's grand railway station was among the locations used during the 2001-2002 shoot.
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Old City Hall
Toronto, Ontario
The Romanesque former city hall was one of the Toronto buildings used for scenes in the film.
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Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
One of the Toronto locations where scenes were shot between December 2001 and April 2002.
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Danforth Music Hall
Toronto, Ontario
The historic Toronto music hall was among the venues used for scenes in the film.
Fun factsFacts that go hard 🤓
- The story traces back to journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins, whose 1926 play was inspired by two real Chicago murder trials she covered: those of Beulah Annan, the model for Roxie Hart, and Belva Gaertner, the model for Velma Kelly.Wikipedia · Development
- Within a year of the 1926 play's debut it was adapted into a silent film, in which the real-life murderer Belva Gaertner herself had a cameo.Wikipedia · Development
- A Chicago film was to have been Bob Fosse's next project before he died. His jazz choreography style runs throughout the 2002 film, whose credits include a dedication to Fosse, his wife Gwen Verdon and producer Robert Fryer.Wikipedia · Development
- Chicago was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968, 34 years earlier.Wikipedia · Introduction
- Chicago grossed $306.8 million worldwide, at the time the highest gross of any film never to reach number one or two on the weekly North American box office charts; it peaked at number three.Wikipedia · Box office
- To solve the problem of characters breaking into song, the film presents the musical numbers as vaudeville acts taking place in Roxie's imagination, while the "real life" scenes are shot with a hard-edged grittiness.Wikipedia · Development
- The long-awaited film was revived by the runaway success of the minimalist 1996 Broadway revival, which became the longest-running musical revival and the longest-running American musical on Broadway.Wikipedia · Development
- Chicago was the feature directorial debut of Rob Marshall, who also choreographed the film.Wikipedia · Introduction
- The 1926 play had already been filmed once as a talkie: Roxie Hart (1942), directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers.Wikipedia · Development
- Several songs from the stage score were cut, and the number "Class" with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah was filmed but deleted; it resurfaced in an extended version for the film's 2005 NBC broadcast premiere.Wikipedia · Music