Fights, fishnets and backbends: the rotten razzle-dazzle of Chicago
As the murderous $1bn musical returns to London, composer John Kander and Ann Reinking, one of the first Roxies, unpick the secrets of its successIn the spring of 1924, Maurine Watkins, a young reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covered a murder trial in which a 24-year-old woman stood accused of shooting her lover. While Harry Kalstedt lay dying, prosecutors claimed, Beulah May Annan played jazz records and drank coc…