大象传媒

It was a heady combination of the seedy side of a city, jazz and murder, and memorable performances from Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere that scooped the musical film "Chicago" 6 Academy Awards., including one for Best Picture. The 2002 movie was based on the 1975 stage musical created by Bob Fosse, but the story of murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart had been told in several forms before that. The first was in 1926 by Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, based on two actual 1924 murder cases.

Paul Gambaccini traces the origin of the film and hears why it triumphed so spectacularly at the Oscars. There are contributions from the film's Musical Supervisor Maureen Crowe who recalls the way the music was recorded and put together in London, Toronto and Los Angeles and how difficult it was to get the opening horn lick in the first few bars just right.
We also hear from film critics Toby Miller and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and there are interviews recorded at the time of the film's release with starring actor Richard Gere and director Rob Marshall.

Producer: Emma Kingsley