Chicago Research

True story - before Chicago was a musical, it was a play (also titled Chicago, written by Maurine Dallas Watkins). Watkins was a reporter, and the play was based on a few of the more sensational crimes she covered.

Director Jerry Crouch brought in copies of the original articles (some written by Watkins) and shared them with the cast and crew.  It's been fascinating to read the interviews with Belva Gaertner (on whom the character Velma Kelly is based) and Beulah May Annan (Roxie Hart is based on her), both of whom were suspected of murder and eventually acquitted.

We'll leave a copy of Jerry's research in the Box Office - stop by if you'd like to read for yourself what Belva, the "most stylish woman on Murderess Row," had to say about juries, gin, or guns!

Peter Pan ... Did you know?

After a phenomenal first weekend of Peter Pan performances on the ACT mainstage, we caught up again with director Jerry Crouch for some "little know facts" about Peter Pan. Jerry, as usual, delivered in fine form. So here they are, straight from the "walking encyclopedia of musical theatre's" mouth ....

Peter Pan ... Did you know?

1. James Barrie "invented" the name "Wendy." It was a mispronunciation by a little girl whose father was a dear friend of Barrie's.

2. Charlie Chaplin was Barrie's first choice for the 1924 silent film version of Peter Pan, which eventually starred Betty Bronson.

3. The first time Cathy Rigby toured in the live musical version of Peter Pan in the early '70s, her singing was dubbed by another singer because she had never sung professionally.

4. In 1965, George Cukor and Audrey Hepburn, director and star of 1964's My Fair Lady, almost did a movie version of the musical Peter Pan, which co-starred Sir Laurence Olivier as Captain Hook.

5. Mary Martin's teenage daughter, Heller Halliday, was originally slotted to play Wendy opposite her mother (as Peter), but director Jerome Robbins argued nobody wanted to be reminded that Mary was a 40-something mother playing an adolescent boy!