THEN AND NOW: Chicago the Musical

Making its return to the West End stage, Chicago is one of the most famous musicals around the world. The show has attracted some very famous names to it including Ruthie Henshall (who is the only Woman to play all three leads), Bebe Neuwirth, Brandy, Jerry Springer, Mel B, Todrick Hall, Wendy Williams, Tase Diggs, Ashlee Simpson, Melanie Griffith, Patrick Swayze and most recently on the West End, Alexandra Burke. In this edition of 'Then And Now' we look back on the original Broadway production, the 1996 Broadway revival, the 2013 revival at the Leicester Curve, the current West End production and we also look back to numerous cast members who have featured in the West End run of the 1996 revival. Take a look and share your favourite moments of the show with us on Twitter! @PocketSizeBlog #PocketThenNow

Roxie Hart 

Gwen Verdon (1975), Ann Reinig (1996), Bonnie Langford (2006), Gemma Sutton (2013) & Sarah Soetaert (2018)

Velma Kelly 

Chita Rivera (1975), Bebe Neuwirth (1996), Leigh Zimmerman (2001), Verity Rushworth (2013) & Josefina Gabrielle (2018)

Goodbye WE WILL ROCK YOU! A look back at the productions history...

Having rocked over 6.5 million people in a record-breaking 12 years at London's Dominion Theatre, the smash hit Queen & Ben Elton musical We Will Rock You is due to close on 31 May 2014. Now the longest running show ever at the Dominion by a margin of nine years, the show takes its rightful place in West End history, sitting proudly in the Top 10 longest running musicals of all time.

The show has now been performed in 28 countries around the globe, and has been seen by a more than 16 million people.

From its opening night at the Dominion on 14 May 2002, We Will Rock You quickly became the overwhelming people’s choice of musical in the UK and overseas. In its second year at the Dominion it won top honours in five categories in the Theatregoers Choice awards presented by whatsonstage.com, including Best New Musical. In 2011, nine years after the curtain first went up, the show won the prestigious Olivier Audience Award, the only category voted for entirely by the public. The show went on to win a number of international awards for productions around the globe.

We Will Rock You the Musical: Theatre Review

After almost 11 years after it originally opened, We Will Rock You is one of London’s longest running musicals to date. Receiving mostly bad reviews when it first opened back in 2002 it’s proved to be an audience favourite and still rocks the Dominion Theatre night after night. Over the years since its original premier its had loads of productions open all over the world; places include Australia, Japan, Las Vegas, Spain, Germany, Canada, Italy, Norway and plenty of other places with a 10^th Anniversary Arena Tour opening at the end of February. 

We Will Rock You follows the story of Scaramouche and Galileo who are outcasts in a world where clones are produced, music is made by computers and all the GaGa kids watch the same thing and learn the same moves. Meat and Brit (two ‘bohemians’) find Galileo and Scaramouche and take them to the heartbreak hotel but they get found out by Khashoggi who is the right hand man to the leader of the iPlanet, the Killer Queen. In the end they find an electric guitar and find real rock music and save the world.