Chicago is a 1926 play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins

Maurine Dallas Watkins

Maurine Dallas Watkins was an American journalist and playwright.She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and attended Crawfordsville High School, followed by five colleges...

. It was based on two unrelated 1924 cases of two women, Beulah Annan

Beulah Annan

Beulah May Annan was a suspected American murderess.She is one of the subjects of Maurine Dallas Watkins's play Chicago in 1924...

 and Belva Gaertner

Belva Gaertner

Belva Gaertner , acquitted in a 1924 murder trial, inspired the fictional character Velma Kelly/Velma Wall created by Maurine Dallas Watkins, who reported on her trial for the Chicago Tribune...

, who were both suspected and later acquitted for murder, that Watkins had covered for the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

as a reporter. The play would later inspire a 1927 movie

Chicago (1927 film)

Chicago is a 1927 comedy-drama silent film produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Frank Urson.-Plot:Drawn from the play of the same name by Maurine Dallas Watkins which was in turn based on the true story of Beulah Annan, fictionalized as Roxie Hart , and her spectacular murder of her boyfriend...

; Roxie Hart, a 1942 movie

Roxie Hart (film)

Roxie Hart is a 1942 film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, William Frawley, and Spring Byington....

; and a 1975 stage musical

Chicago (musical)

Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...

, which in turn inspired the 2002 Best Picture-winning film

Chicago (2002 film)

Chicago is a 2002 musical film adapted from the satirical stage musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz-age Chicago....

. Watkins wrote the script (originally titled "Brave Little Woman") as a class assignment while attending the Yale Drama School. The play debuted on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 at the Sam Harris Theatre in late December 1926, directed by George Abbott

George Abbott

George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...

, where it ran for 172 performances. To avoid confusion with the musical play and rights held by that show's producers and creators, the play is now titled Play Ball, when it is performed.

See also

• Machinal
  Machinal
  Machinal is a play written by American playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, inspired by the real life case of convicted and executed murderess Ruth Snyder...
  
  , another play from the 1920s, inspired by a real-life case of a woman convicted of murder.