Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2014

Maurine Watkins was a street-wise newspaperwoman in Chicago in the ’20s who covered many of the high-profile trials of the jazz age, including two of women charged with murdering their lovers. She channeled her courtroom reporting experience into the 1926 Broadway hit Play Ball. The play was later adapted as a silent film, a musical starring Ginger Rogers, a big Broadway show and the mega budget Catherine Zeta Jones spectacle.

Now the Yokohama International School takes the story back to its source, with an English-language production of the original 1926 play, with all its fast-talking reporters, witty dialogue and fallen women. Is showgirl Roxie Hart willing to “play ball” to get what she wants? You better believe it, sister.

January 23, 5pm, January 24-25, 7:30pm, January 26, 2pm, ¥1,000/¥500 (students). Yokohama International School.