We hope you're ready to let us pepper your ragoût with a special episode that opens and closes with talk of Bette but spends the middle talking about the 2003 Best Picture Chicago. We have survived editing mishaps and background animal noise (Rosie's jangling tags and rapid panting are special guest stars throughout!) to bring this to you, so please join us on a journey that starts with some listener mail and more of Bette's bad tweets, then we'll time travel to the 1970s to imagine a version of Chicago starring Bette and Cher. After that we'll visit the 2000s to reminisce about dual layer dvds. We'll bring you back to today, but not before a brief sojourn to the 2010s for a conspiracy involving Meryl Streep.

SHOW NOTES

Reminder - Angela Bassett did the thing!

Angela's Honorary Oscar

Miss Otis Regrets

New York Restoration Project

Divanation - RIP

The Greatest Night in Pop

Chita Rivera (1933-2024)

The Shriner's Ballet from Bye Bye Birdie

Not Starring dot com

Texas Guinan

Bette and Cher looking like Roxie and Velma

Barbara Harris

Liza in Chicago on Broadway

All That Jazz (1979)

The 1926 silent movie version of Chicago, until recently thought to be lost. It has a slighlty different ending from the stage version

Roxie Hart (1942)

Deidre Goodwin on You Might Know Her From

Big Jim Colosimo

The trailer for the movie musical with the faux "Keep your paws off my lawyer" line

Women got the right to vote in 1920

Highlights from the 1992 Long Beach production starring Bebe Neuwirth and Juliet Prowse

Lipstick on Roxie's teeth and other flubs

Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon doing the Hot Honey Rag on The Mike Douglas Show

The Revival Choreography

Sara Ramirez

The bonkers "Donna Murphy did Meryl Streep's singing in Into the Woods" theory

Donna Murphy herself debunking it

Use JustWatch to find where Chicago (and anything else!) is streaming