TV: CHICAGO Performs Free for Facebook Fans

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On January 30, an all-star roster of CHICAGO alumni celebrated CHICAGO's "Facebook Fan Day," a one-of-a-kind performance marking the first time in Broadway history that a production has given away its entire house to Facebook fans for FREE. Participants included Tony Award winner Chita Rivera (Broadway's original Velma Kelly), Vincent Pastore (Amos Hart), Tony Award winner Lillias White (Matron "Mama" Morton), Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba (Roxie Hart), Brent Barrett (Billy Flynn), Rob Bartlett (Amos Hart), Amra-Faye Wright (Velma Kelly), Carol Woods (Matron "Mama" Morton) and many more, plus current CHICAGO stars Bianca Marroquin (Roxie Hart), Leigh Zimmerman (Velma Kelly), Colman Domingo (Billy Flynn), Robert Creighton (Amos Hart) and LaVon Fisher-Wilson (Matron "Mama" Morton). Also in attendance were producer Barry Weissler, special guest hosts Julie James and Seth Rudetsky of SiriusXM Radio's "On Broadway" channel, and over 1,000 of CHICAGO's top fans, all of whom are attending this very special performance for free.

BroadwayWorld was on hand and brings you video coverage of the opening below.

The "Facebook Fan Day" initiative first began on Monday, November 15, when CHICAGO launched an exclusive online contest on its Facebook fan page. The rules: any fan who recruited 10 of their friends to "Like" CHICAGO on the popular social networking site would receive a free ticket to the Sunday, January 30 matinee performance.

Within a few short hours, the entire performance was full. The response from CHICAGO fans was so literally overwhelming that the Fan Page administrators had to shut down the contest application after 5 hours because the user traffic was so immense that the program couldn't keep up with all of the interactions!

Following the success of the "Facebook Fan Day" contest, CHICAGO took yet another step towards directly engaging with its audience earlier this month, when it launched a second online contest allowing fans to select the key artwork for its next full-scale advertising campaign.

CHICAGO is the sixth longest-running production in Broadway history, as well as Broadway's longest-running musical revival. It is the winner of six 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival.

Visit CHICAGO online at www.chicagothemusical.com or www.facebook.com/chicagothemusical.