A razzle-dazzle pitchman

Broadway director-choreographer Rob Marshall was invited to the Miramax Films offices here a year and a half ago to discuss directing the film version of “Rent.” But he had a secret agenda. He knew the company had been trying for years to get a film version of one of his favorite stage musicals, “Chicago,” off the ground.

“Right before we started, I said, ‘I know you’re trying to do “Chicago.” ’ And I said, ‘Can I just tell you what I would do with the movie?’ The next thing I know, they’re taking me into Harvey Weinstein’s office and I’m doing my pitch for him. I even got up and performed a few numbers.”

He got the gig on the spot.

That’s no small deal because the project -- dealing with two infamous murderesses (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger) in 1920s Chicago and their corrupt attorney, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) -- had been kicking around since the well-received 1996 revival became a Tony-winning hit. Writers such as Larry Gelbart and Wendy Wasserstein and actresses such as Liza Minnelli, Goldie Hawn and Madonna had come and gone. But no package was deemed good enough by Miramax to get a green light.

What Marshall proposed was twofold: First, forget the conventional “he sings to her and she sings to him” musical format. “I knew these numbers had to take place on some kind of stage,” he says. “Everything in ‘Chicago’ is based on vaudevillian routines. There’s the Sophie Tucker number, the Helen Morgan number, the ventriloquist number. You can’t eliminate that element, so you have to incorporate it.”

Marshall then dealt with the question, “OK, why would they be on a stage?” His answer was using one of the characters, theatrical wannabe Roxie Hart (played by Zellweger), as a catalyst. “So we have two worlds: the real world of Chicago and the theatrical world seen through her eyes,” he said.

Now “Chicago” is a movie and strong buzz is already sweeping through an initially skeptical industry. With the exception of “Moulin Rouge” -- “which has paved the way for us,” says Marshall -- there hasn’t been a stylized, successful musical since “Cabaret” (1972) and “All That Jazz” (1979). (“Evita,” from 1996, is considered a qualified success, critically and commercially.)

Marshall is an ebullient, trim bundle of energy who choreographed and directed “Little Me” on Broadway, co-directed the revival of “Cabaret” with Sam Mendes, and directed the well-received TV version of “Annie.”

“We’re probably closest to ‘Cabaret’ because Bob Fosse [its Oscar-winning director] also put all his numbers on a stage,” Marshall says.

Fosse was, in fact, the first director attached to a filmed “Chicago” since he had directed its original stage version, which starred Chita Rivera and his wife, Gwen Verdon, in 1975. He was in discussions with Marty Richards, the producer who owned the rights to the project, about a film version when he dropped dead on a New York street in 1987. “Bob said he’d do it as soon as he got done with ‘Sweet Charity’ on Broadway, but he died during the run,” says Richards, who likes to say he’s been working on this since his “confirmation.” He turned 70 on the day the film wrapped. “I remember Bob telling me he was interested in the emerging performer Madonna, saying, ‘ I’ll get her an Oscar nomination.’ ”

Things stalled and the project was just going into turnaround when a sexy and spare revival of the musical (directed by Marshall first in Los Angeles) took Broadway by storm. The first director Richards went to was Baz Luhrmann, who would go on to direct a jazzed-up “Romeo and Juliet” and “Moulin Rouge.”

“He told me he didn’t do things unless he developed them on his own,” Richards says, laughing. “Later I thought, well, William Shakespeare isn’t exactly new!”

Nicholas Hytner, who directed the acclaimed revival of “Carousel” in London and New York (and, later, the film “The Madness of King George”), also became attached as director and brought in his friend Wasserstein to have a stab at the script, without the knowledge of producer Richards. Gelbart has sour memories of the process: “I began work on ‘Chicago’ in 1995 and went on to enough drafts to contract double pneumonia -- at least seven. It was one of the most distasteful periods of my professional life. If I had it to do over again, I would have written the experience with a happier ending for me -- but then Miramax would probably call someone in to rewrite that too.”

And there things stood until Marshall -- who’d never made a feature film -- walked into the Miramax offices.

His first order of business was finding a screenwriter, and he finally landed on Bill Condon, a writer-director who had recently won an Oscar for his screenplay of “Gods and Monsters.” Condon, like so many on this project, didn’t have a musical on his resume but was a longtime lover of the genre and “Chicago” in particular. (He’d seen it three times on stage.) Like Marshall, he knew that moving a musical from stage to screen was littered with land mines.

“We’d all seen those leaden musicals,” he says. “I mean, ‘Chorus Line’ became sludge on screen. Rob and I agreed that the key was figuring out how to keep the vaudevillian world of the play in a separate universe from the reality in the piece. I did an outline and then we read it to Harvey Weinstein. Halfway through he slammed the table and said, ‘I get it!’ It was one of those eureka moments.”

Condon did borrow a beat here or there from some of the numerous previous efforts. “There’s a plot twist at the end that came from Larry Gelbart’s script, having to do with Velma stealing Roxie’s diary and taking the stand in court,” he says. Experiencing the film’s fast-paced “razzle-dazzle,” one might assume that it’s all in the editing. In fact, every one of those edits is written into the script, explains Condon. “For example, what would we show in [the hypocritical, self-aggrandizing] Billy Flynn’s real world, when in the fantasy world he’s singing ‘All I Care About Is Love?’ So I put in that he’s getting fitted for an expensive suit and kicking the tailor.”

On to the dance numbers

When the script was finished, Marshall started on the dance numbers. The first thing he did was throw out the original Fosse choreography so associated with the piece and create his own.

“Bob Fosse to me is the genius of all time,” says Marshall, “but I have too much respect for him than to bastardize his work. When he did ‘Cabaret’ on film, he created his own choreography. So I knew he would understand. I think it is full of his spirit.”

By this time, as producer Richards says, “the actors originally associated with it grew too old,” and Miramax told Marshall and Co. to begin again. While Marshall’s theater background might lead him to friends like Bebe Neuwirth, who’d won the Tony for the newer stage version, he grasped the politics. “Miramax was taking enough of a chance on a musical so it was understood they expected movie stars.”

First cast was Catherine Zeta-Jones, whom Marshall heard had done musicals like “42nd Street” on stage in Europe. He felt she had the perfect look for Velma, who starts off as a star, snubs the impressionable Roxie and later pays dearly for it. “Catherine had played these big characters, but what’s nice is here she begins as a star and is immediately dethroned. She said, ‘I’m going to be the underdog for most of this movie ... and I love it!’ ”

For the role of sleazy lawyer Flynn, Marshall thought of Richard Gere. (Richards acknowledges he’d approached Kevin Kline, who had another commitment.) “He’s perfect as a charming cad,” says Marshall, “but you still like him. Everyone in this movie is corrupt, but my hope is you like them despite that.” Gere, who’d performed in stage musicals years ago, among them “Grease” in London, sings his two numbers well and performs an impressive tap dance.

“Rob and I come from Broadway, so it would never do for us to use stand-ins for performers,” explains John DeLuca, dance supervisor and Marshall’s general “right hand.” He and Marshall worked with Gere during the rehearsal period. “This was new for Richard, like a foreign language, but he worked hard and he has real style.”

The biggest challenge was casting Roxie Hart.

“I’d always thought if we could get a Renee Zellweger type who sings and dances, we’d have it made. She’s vulnerable, likable and has so much depth that you can follow her through a whole movie,” says Marshall. She was initially unavailable, so he began a process wherein a dozen actresses -- “Meg Ryan level,” he says -- flew to New York for a song-and-dance session with him. Eventually Zellweger agreed to come and talk. And then dance. And finally sing.

“She just watched for a while, then closed the door so it was just me and her, and she picked up the dance steps like that,” says Marshall. “She didn’t want to sing yet, but we were having dinner later and she asked about the songs and I started singing and then she started singing and it turns out her voice has this Billie Holiday quality.”

“The conceit of the film is seeing everything through Roxie’s eyes,” adds screenwriter Condon. “And half the battle was getting Renee.”

Filming took place over three months in Toronto, where much of the look was accomplished by production designer John Myrhe. The songs were recorded first, and while the actors spent a few weeks rehearsing, Myrhe was turning an old warehouse into a 3-story, turn-of-the-century vaudeville house. “We ended up with one of the best theatrical stages in Toronto,” he says. “I learned so much since this was half Hollywood, half Broadway. I had to build all kinds of different surfaces for the dancers, some that were slick to slide on, or sticky or scuffed up, depending what a number needed.”

“One of the most difficult challenges was organizing the rehearsal periods and getting all the numbers prerecorded before starting shooting,” says Neil Meron, who with Craig Zadan executive-produced the film. “Which means the actors really have to gauge their performances and where characters will be at a point in the future.”

“Also,” adds Zadan, “whenever you deal with a movie company that has never done a musical -- which is every movie company -- it’s hard to get across what you need.”

Keepers of the flame

Zadan and Meron have probably done more than anyone to revive the filmed musical: They brought Bette Midler to TV in “Gypsy.” They followed with Whitney Houston and Brandy in “Cinderella,” which reached 60 million viewers. And “Annie” was the most highly viewed TV movie of 1999. (Next: “The Music Man,” with Matthew Broderick, in February.)

“The truth is,” says Zadan, “there are lots of great filmmakers, but none know how to make musicals. I talked to Ron Howard in 1984 about doing ‘Footloose,’ which he loved, but said he had no idea how to do a musical. Spielberg recently said he wants to do one.”

In the end, it was director Marshall who set the tone. Though a newcomer to film, his theatrical background worked. “I know how to tell a story in two hours,” he says, “and even though others know a million more technical tricks than I do, I know how to work with actors.”

So what about “Rent,” where it all started? Marshall laughs. “They still haven’t talked to me about it yet!”