Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play Chicago and its various remakes and derivatives.
Roxanne "Roxie" Hart is a fictional character. She is the main character of the 1926 play Chicago and its various remakes and derivatives.
The playwright, reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, was inspired by the trials, both of which ended in acquittals, of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner (for separate crimes), which she covered for the Chicago Tribune . Annan's story served as the basis for the play: she had killed her paramour Harry Kalstedt and was able to convince her auto mechanic husband Albert to pay for her successful defense, only to dump him the day after the trial. For the play, Annan was fictionalized as Roxie Hart, Kalstedt became Fred Casely, and Albert became Amos Hart. Some of the details of Gaertner's crime, including her past as a vaudeville singer (Annan was a bookkeeper) and blaming of her misdeed on getting drunk, were also applied to the Roxie character. [1] The 1975 musical adaptation bases Hart's mannerisms on Helen Morgan. [2]
During her time as a young adult, Roxanne dreamed of a career in vaudeville but, despite dating noted mobster Al Capelli and getting some press attention as a socialite, is never able to break into the business beyond some work as a chorus girl in a seedy nightclub on Chicago's South Side. Defeated, she falls for auto mechanic Amos Hart, a kind-hearted but meek and naïve man with a stable working-class income; his relationship with Roxie is more akin to that of a father figure (her own father disowned her three years before she met Amos) than a romantic partner. Seven years into the marriage, she and Amos have stopped having sex and she begins an affair with Fred Casely, a furniture salesman, while Amos is working his long hours. At the start of the show, Roxie shoots Fred after he attempts to break off the affair and convinces Amos that she was stopping a burglar.
After Amos reneges on an agreement to take the fall when he deduces the truth, Roxie is arrested for the crime and, while being detained, falls under the influence of the prison's bribe-taking warden, "Mama" Morton, who has the connections to turn Roxie's case into a media sensation and also connects her to hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn. Roxie uses the media coverage as a way for her to revive her aspirations of a vaudeville career, with Flynn and Morton helping along the way. Throughout her trial, she forms a rivalry with another murder suspect, Velma Kelly.
In the end, Roxie is acquitted of the crime, Amos leaves her (both for lack of attention and lying about being pregnant to gain sympathy from the press), and her dreams of superstardom are dashed when the media abandons her story. She eventually achieves her dream of performing vaudeville, joining Velma's double act to replace Velma's sister Veronica, whom Velma was acquitted of killing.
The play made it to Broadway in 1926 and ran for 172 performances. Gaertner attended the Chicago opening. Its adaptations include:
Performers who have portrayed Roxie Hart in the musical also include Katherine Edgar, Ariana Madix, Paige Davis, Erika Jayne, Lisa Rinna, Liza Minnelli (who substituted for Gwen Verdon in the original production in 1975), Ann Reinking, Bianca Marroquin, Brooke Shields, [3] Ruthie Henshall, Melora Hardin, [4] Ashlee Simpson, [3] Melanie Griffith, [3] Samantha Harris, Michelle Williams, [3] Shiri Maimon, Christie Brinkley, [5] Desi Oakley, Brandy Norwood, [6] Tiffany Young, [7] Pamela Anderson in her Broadway debut and Olivia Holt. [8] [9] Henshall, Simpson, Shields, and Williams have portrayed the character both on Broadway and The West End. Bebe Neuwirth, who won a Tony Award for the role of Velma Kelly in 1997, also portrayed Roxie in the same production in 2006. [3]
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and she served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including Lola in Damn Yankees, the title character in Sweet Charity, and Roxie Hart in Chicago.
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Chicago is a 1927 American silent crime comedy-drama film produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson. The first film adaptation of Maurine Dallas Watkins' play of the same name, the film stars Phyllis Haver as Roxie Hart, a fame-obsessed housewife who kills her lover in cold blood and, after trying to coerce her husband into taking the blame, is put on trial for murder.
Belva Eleanora Gaertner was an American woman who was acquitted of murder in a 1924 trial. She inspired the character of Velma in the 1926 play Chicago created by Maurine Dallas Watkins; Watkins reported on the trial for the Chicago Tribune. The character of Velma Kelly also appears in the 1975 musical based on the play.
Maurine Dallas Watkins was an American playwright and screenwriter. Early in her career, she briefly worked as a journalist covering the courthouse beat for the Chicago Tribune. This experience gave her the material for her most famous piece of work, the stage play, Chicago (1926), which was eventually adapted into the 1975 Broadway musical of the same name, which was then made into a film in 2002 that won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Chicago is a 2002 American musical crime comedy film based on the 1975 stage musical of the same name which in turn originated in the 1926 play of the same name. It explores the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere. Chicago centers on Roxie Hart (Zellweger) and Velma Kelly (Zeta-Jones), two murderers who find themselves in jail together awaiting trial in 1920s Chicago. Roxie, a housewife, and Velma, a vaudevillian, fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Rob Marshall, who also choreographed the film, and was adapted by screenwriter Bill Condon, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb.
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Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
Ann Reinking was an American dancer, actress, choreographer, and singer. She worked predominantly in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco (1969), Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986).
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Roxie Hart is a 1942 American comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou and George Montgomery. A film adaptation of a 1926 play Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist who found inspiration in two real-life Chicago trials she had covered for the press. The play had been adapted once prior, in a 1927 silent film. In 1975, a hit stage musical premiered, and was once more adapted as the Oscar-winning 2002 musical film.
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Josefina Gabrielle Holmes, professionally known as Josefina Gabrielle, is a British actress and former ballet dancer, best known for her performances in West End musicals and plays.
Bianca Marroquín is a Mexican musical theatre and television actress known for being the first Mexican actress to have a starring role on Broadway. She has performed in the musical Chicago for over twenty years and is one of the few actresses to play both female leads, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly.
Lenora Nemetz is an American stage and musical theatre actress.
Velma Kelly is one of the main characters in the successful 1975 Broadway musical Chicago. Kelly is based on the character "Velma", who first appeared in the 1926 play, also called Chicago, who was in-turn inspired by the life of Belva Gaertner.
Chicago is a play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins. The play, while fiction, is a satire based on two unrelated 1924 court cases involving two women, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, who were both suspected and later acquitted of murder, whom Watkins had covered for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter.
William Flynn is a fictional character from the 1926 play Chicago, written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, and its various derivative works and remakes.