Chicago is an American musical comedy with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins about real criminals and the crimes she reported on. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "famous criminal". Fred Ebb explains: “So I made it [Chicago] a vaudeville based on the idea that the characters were performers. Every musical moment in the show was loosely modeled on someone else: Roxie was Helen Morgan, Velma was Texas Guinan, Billy Flynn was Ted Lewis, Mama Morton was Sophie Tucker” (Kander, Ebb, and Lawrence 127). Velma is in effect a reincarnation of Texas Guinan who “acted as a hostess…for entertainment…she was also a born press agent, constantly making up stories and promoting herself” (slide 218). Roxie's "Funny Honey" Amos eerily recalls Helen Morgan's "Bill" from Kern and Hammerstein's 1927 classic Showboat. Amos also, in his "Mr. Cellophane," imitates Ziegfeld Follies star Bert Williams' iconic hit , “Nobody,” “right down to Williams’ famous costume of oversized clothes and white gloves” (Miller). By relating the characters to vaudeville stars, the Chicago cast is, in effect, imitating the real-life vaudeville acts they evoke. Around 1900 (at a time when vaudeville was just beginning to take off), a new social science model viewing imitation as the key to self-development was gaining popularity, while the older notion of intrinsic human character or fixed was losing plausibility among American psychologists. (Glenn 62). Imitation came to be recognized as an outward play of personality rather than a revealing middle of paper... John, Fred Ebb and Greg Lawrence. “Chicago on Broadway.” Colorful lights: forty years of music, show biz, collaboration and all that jazz. New York: Faber and Faber, 2003. 119-40. Google Books. Internet. May 1, 2014. Kerr, Walter. "'Chicago' is coming like the end of the world." Reverend of Chicago. New York Times June 8, 1975, sec. Arts and Entertainment: 109. New York Times Archives. New York Times. Internet. May 1, 2014. Miller, Scott . “Inside Chicago.” Deconstructing Harold Hill: An Insider's Guide to Musical Theater. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Drama, 1999. N. pag. New Line Theater. . The Vaudeville Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1994. Google Books Internet. Zoglin, Richard. Now it's a triumph." Reverend of Chicago. Time November 25, 1996: n. page. Time. Time. Internet. March 8. 2014.