How Chicago became a hit musical — 'We wrote fast and tore up fast'

24/10/2023 54 min
How Chicago became a hit musical — 'We wrote fast and tore up fast'

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Episode Synopsis


Composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb's creative partnership lasted forty years and produced hit shows like Cabaret, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Since Ebb's death in 2004, John Kander — now 96 years old — has continued making new work. With Chicago back on stage in Australia, John Kander joins us from New York. Also, we travel to Moscow to encounter the devil and his gang of misfits wreaking havoc among the literati of Stalinist Russia. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote the novel The Master and Margarita in the 1930s when he was fed up with seeing his books and plays banned by Russian authorities. Now, Belvoir St Theatre are adapting this unwieldy novel for the stage.