"Chester Tate" as "Billy Flynn" in CHICAGO...

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 4/19/23 at 9:03pm

Now that CHICAGO is the longest-running musical currently on Broadway, I thought I would share a new page on my Melody Top website about a 1980 production of the musical that starred Robert Mandan (Billy Flynn), April Shawhan (Roxie Hart), and Louisa Flaningam (Velma Kelly). Click on the link below to see production and rehearsal photos, interviews, reviews, and four audio clips from a recording made through the tent's sound system. If anyone here is able to put me in touch with April or Louisa, I would be extremely grateful.

CHICAGO (1980) at Memories of Melody Top

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 4/25/23 at 11:32am

A big "thank you" to everyone who visited my site. I appreciate your support.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 4/25/23 at 11:43am

Some of those costumes (including the Jury ones) make it look like if the cast of Godspell and Pippin told the story of Chicago! So cool!

[broadwaydanwi]

Posted: 4/27/23 at 5:50pm

fashionguru_23 said: "Some of those costumes (including the Jury ones) make it look like if the cast of Godspell and Pippin told the story of Chicago! So cool!"

I agree! One of the things I miss about the current revival of CHICAGO is the fun a good designer can have creating costumes for those characters. Melody Top's costumes were designed by Mathew John Hoffman III, a New York native and graduate of Yale Drama School who, in 1980, was also the "Designer at Costumes Unlimited -- the foremost costume house in Chicago." His film credits include work on THE GREAT GATSBY and THE MUPPET MOVIE. He was also involved in the original Broadway productions of APPLAUSE, SUGAR, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and the revival of ON THE TOWN. Sadly, he died in the fall of 1988, at the age of 45, due to complications from AIDS. His only surviving relative was his father.