Broadway classic "Chicago" was staged in Beijing on Nov 14, with shows running till Nov 24.

A scene from the Broadway classic Chicago, which is touring China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The ongoing China tour will take the musical to 11 cities with 74 shows, including Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Suzhou in Jiangsu province, Xi'an in Shaanxi province and Chongqing.

The show ran for about 600 performances until 1979. It was revived on Broadway in 1996, and then a year later in the West End. The famous tale of love, murder and corruption holds the record for one of the longest-running shows on Broadway.

Set in 1920s Chicago, and based on real-life murders and trials, it follows Roxie Hart, a wannabe vaudeville star who murders her lover and is arrested. In jail, Hart meets her hero, the famed nightclub performer Velma Kelly, who is serving time for killing her husband and sister after finding the two in bed together. When they both land the same lawyer, tensions come to a head as they vie for the media spotlight.

Since 1996, the musical has toured 38 countries and has been performed more than 35,000 times, attracting some 34 million people. Honored with six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and a Grammy, it made its debut in China in 2018, visiting five cities.

According to One World Culture Communication, a Beijing-headquartered company, which is the organizer of the tour, during the first half of 2024, more than 27,000 shows were staged in the capital and the revenue of the performing arts market in Beijing rose 22.8 percent year-on-year with box office reaching 1.96 billion yuan ($271 million). Musical is one of the most popular art forms among Chinese audience.

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