Photographer: Jeremy Daniel
Throughout time, Broadway has entertained audiences with such great artistic performances as “Chicago,” one of the most beloved American musicals. In 2014, “Chicago” surpassed “Cats” (Another Broadway musical), reaching its 7,486th execution of a performance.
The Chicago play’s story originated from events during the Jazz Age. At that time, women were seen as submissive until several high-profile murder cases surfaced in which women appeared to be the perpetrators. The public closely followed those murder cases and was probably perplexed by the situation.
Chicago playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins was assigned to cover the trials held in 1924. The Chicago musical is full of humor. It shows and makes humor out of the prejudices of the population in the 1920s. It was almost impossible to judge a woman on the trial of murder.
An interesting fact about the Chicago musical is that because women had done the murders, it is amusing to watch how difficult it was to judge these women.
Wilkins adds the exaggeration to resell the way women were seen at the time. What we gain from viewing Chicago is that we can compare how differently women were treated back then to today.