The talented Shelly Goldstein (not to be confused with the many untalented Shelly Goldsteins out there) turned me on to this nugget of Broadway gold: Nine minutes of rehearsal footage from the original 1975 production of Chicago, starring Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Jerry Orbach and Barney Martin, directed by Bob Fosse. Also in there is a stunning dancer named Charlene Ryan who is now wed to the guy who draws Groo the Wanderer. The video ain't great and the audio ain't grand but it's amazing that this even exists. Certain things were changed before the show opened and wowed them in New York.
One of these days, the currently-ubiquitous concert-style staging of this show will fade from favor and view, and we'll see a revival that promises to faithfully recreate the original Fosse production. Not that what they're doing now is bad in any way but I'd sure like to see it, at least once, the way Bob did it. Here's a little taste…