This chapter chronicles the rise of Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse as well as John Kander and Fred Ebb in the theatre industry. Their careers reveal how much the musical was transforming itself by the late 1940s, and how comfortably it moved between musical comedy and the musical play, uncovering ways of aligning them in innovative mutations. Moreover, the musical had come to amalgamate the responsibilities of director and choreographer and make the rise of the naturalistic actor not only possible but necessary. In a way, one could say that a Chicago musical was unthinkable until the liberation of Fosse and Verdon and the evolution of Kander and Ebb, out of musical comedy into the commentative show. Like Show Boat, Oklahoma!, and West Side Story, Chicago is an exhibition piece in the development of the elite yet populist and idealistic yet subversive national art form, the musical.
