Actress Michelle DeJean, who plays the character Roxie Hart in "Chicago" musical on Broadway signs autographs for fans as she leaves the Ambassador Theatre on December 29, 2007 in New York City. /Wireimage
Barry Weissler Exclusive:
Day 9
By Barry Weissler, Chicago Beauties
Fri Jan 25, 2008
When it came time to decide on an advertising campaign for Chicago, it couldn’t have been easier. The story moved me, and I felt such an excitement and passion for it. The whole thing was a turn on. I couldn’t wait for audiences to see it. I wanted my enthusiasm to break through the billboards and ads. The photo shoot was crucial.
What makes this Chicago so bold and sexy? What makes it smolder? This production works because there is an absolute dramatic focus on the characters. The strong and powerful women are the core of the show.
No ornaments, no distractions, no excess colors. Just these women.
It reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was both fashionable without being so trendy as to feel dated by tomorrow afternoon. I told the photographer what I wanted. I said “Make it dangerous, sexual and fashionable.”
He took it one step further. He heard me and he delivered!
You could neither miss nor avoid the giant dramatic beauties on the Broadway billboard that year.
Until tomorrow…
Broadway producers Barry & Fran Weissler are the recipients of five Tony Awards®. Their numerous Broadway credits include acclaimed productions Othello with James Earl Jones and Christopher Plummer, My One and Only with Tommy Tune, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Kathleen Turner and Charles Durning, Gypsy with Tyne Daly, and the Tony Award-winning productions of Falsettos and Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire, among others. They are currently represented on Broadway – and across the globe -- with the international smash hit Chicago, which earned six 1997 Tony Awards® including Best Musical Revival, as well as countless other awards in the U.S. and abroad.