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So Help Me God!

TO OR DE R TICKETS:

Five Weeks Only:

Call Ticket Central at ()

at the Lucille Lortel Theater ( Christopher Street)

or visit

November 18th through December 20th

starring Kristen Johnston with Brad Bellamy, Catherine Curtin, Amy Fitts, Jeremy Lawrence, Ned Noyes,

Kevin O’Donnell, John G. Preston, Allen Lewis Rickman, Kraig Swartz, Peter Van Wagner, Matthew Waterson, Margot White, John Windsor-Cunningham

and Anna Chlumsky sets Bill Clarke costumes Clint Ramos lights Robert Wierzel sound Jane Shaw properties Deborah Gaouette stage manager Samone B. Weissman asst. stage manager Lauren McArthur

Only $55 per ticket! Tues, Weds, Thurs at 7pm; Fri & Sat at 8pm; Sat & Sun at 2pm Matinee Wednesday November 25th at 2pm No performance Thanksgiving Novth Added Sunday night performance November 29th at 7pm

November 18th to December 20th at the Lucille Lortel Theater

So Help Me God!

directed by Jonathan Bank

Artistic Director Jonathan Bank General Manager Sherri Kotimsky

by Maur ine Dallas Watkins

dir ected by jonathan ban k star r ing kr isten johnston

SO HELP ME GOD! is the story of Kerry, a young actress from Cincinnati, equal parts ambition and idealism, struggling to remain thus on her road to success on Broadway, In a New York minute, Kerry lands a supporting part as well as the job of understudy to the great Lily Darnley, the temperamental and tempestuous leading lady. Apparently chosen because she has neither experience, talent, nor blond hair that might compete with Miss Darnley’s, Kerry nevertheless ends up threatening to steal the show. Lily is a creation as fascinating and unforgettable as Roxie Hart, the “merry murderess” from CHICAGO, the bestknown work by Maurine Dallas Watkins. Like CHICAGO, SO HELP ME GOD! is a satirical comedy focused on a woman with an insatiable desire for attention and the people and industries that thrive on her success. “Nothing is more amusing th

The world came to Chicago in for a grand fair known as the World’s Columbian Exposition.

A Chicago reporter gave the world a sinister tale of sex, murder, celebrity — and all that jazz — just three decades later.

And the account wasn’t fiction — it really happened.

One hundred years ago this week, a young, liquored-up woman named Beulah Annan (remember this was during Prohibition) shot her equally inebriated lover to death in the apartment she shared with her husband. Another young woman named Maurine Dallas Watkins reported Annan’s expedited travails through Cook County’s legal system — from inquest to trial — for the Chicago Tribune.

A Tribune reporter wrote the hit play ‘Chicago’ after covering Cook County murder trials. Decades later, we owe her an obituary.

Annan’s exploits became the framework for Watkins’ three-act play “Chicago,” which was staged for the first time in Roxie Hart, the protagonist, was surrounded by a cast whose words, actions and emotions were pulled directly from the headlines — including many of Watkins’ own.

The story would garner Watkins fame, fortune and a musical and film franchise that continues to delight audiences around the globe today.

Yet, the story behind the story that eventually became the movie “Chicago” could, itself, be a movie. And it is all recorded in the Tribune’s expansive archive. You see, the actual women who inspired these steamy, savvy characters have their own tales to tell — and, quite often, they are not as headstrong and chic as depicted.

Vintage Chicago Tribune: Murder, mayhem and ‘all that jazz’ — the real women who inspired Oscar winner ‘Chicago’

Tribune photo editor Marianne Mather and I compiled their life stories into the book, “He Had It Coming: Four Murderous Women and the Reporter who Immortalized Their Stories.” It’

Maurine Dallas Watkins died on Aug. 10, — 50 years ago this weekend — in Jacksonville, Fla.

Don’t be surprised if Watkins’ name is unfamiliar. A nine-line death notice in the Florida Times-Union on Aug. 12, , was the only recognition of her passing. Like many newspapers around the country, the Chicago Tribune failed to run her obituary.

In , Watkins wrote the play “Chicago,” which today is a $2 billion entertainment franchise featuring A-list celebrities, a hit, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and an Oscar-winning movie. It’s likely the most financially successful piece of writing ever produced by a Chicago Tribune reporter in the paper’s more than years of operation.

The content was pulled from the headlines — some of Watkins’ own. She was hired by the Tribune in early and reported on women inside Cook County Jail who were accused of murder. It was the only professional journalism job in her lifetime and she only held it for eight months.

Watkins used the plot twists of the women’s trials to write a three-act play, “A Brave Little Woman,” the first she would write while attending the new Yale School of Drama in When it debuted on Broadway later that year it was a play called “Chicago.”

Some years after her death, “Chicago” was adapted by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse into the stage musical best known today; the show opened on Broadway in and a revival is currently the second-longest running show on Broadway. A touring production with Roxie Hart, Billy Flynn and “All That Jazz” was last in Chicago this spring at the Cadillac Palace.

Not many traces of Watkins remain at the newspaper.

Time then, 50 years after her death, for Watkins to have her Tribune obituary.

Several years ago, Chicago Tribune photo editor Marianne Mather found a box of photo negatives made of glass, stored in the Tribune Tower basement. On the outside of the c