Velma Kelly


Velma Kelly is one of the main characters in the successful 1975 Broadway musical Chicago.

Character background

Kelly is a nightclub singer/vaudevillian who had mediocre success as part of an acrobatics double act with her sister Veronica until, when she catches Veronica with her husband Charlie while on tour, she presumably kills them both. She is sent to the Cook County Jail where she hires the best soliciting lawyer, Billy Flynn, a master of turning cases into a media circus to free his clients. The attention prompts an offer from the William Morris Agency to pay her more than fourteen times what she had made as her share of the proceeds from the double act with Veronica—once she is acquitted.
Kelly's plans are upended when Roxie Hart, a failed vaudeville aspirant accused of murdering her paramour, arrives in the jail and hires Flynn, who promptly shifts the media circus to Hart and away from Kelly. William Morris drops their offer, and Kelly remains resentful of Hart for the rest of the show, though she begrudgingly concedes that her act needs a partner and that Roxie fits the bill.
Kelly is ultimately acquitted offstage; she and Roxie end up co-headlining a vaudeville tour.

Historical basis

Velma Kelly's character was based on a woman named Belva Gaertner. Belva was a cabaret singer who had been married and divorced twice. After those men had come and gone, she had a lover named Walter Law, who she thought was the right man for her. On March 11, 1924, Belva shot Law, who was already married with one child. Law was found in the front seat of Belva's car with a bottle of gin and a gun beside him that had discharged three cartridges. The next day, she was found at her apartment with bloody clothes on the floor. She claimed that she had been drunk and couldn't remember what had happened. She was arrested for the murder of Walter Law on March 12, 1924. During her interview with Maurine Watkins, Gaertner told Watkins that "gin and guns—either one is bad enough, but together they get you in a dickens of a mess, don't they." Her defense in court was that he could have committed suicide, and she was released in June 1924. She remarried her husband William Gaertner and was later convicted of drunk driving in 1926. In 1927, she attended the opening of Watkins' play Chicago in Chicago, Illinois.
For the musical, Kelly's mannerisms were based upon Texas Guinan, one of the most famous vaudeville performers of the era.

Notable portrayals

Women who have portrayed Velma on the Broadway stage include: Chita Rivera, Caroline O'Connor, Bebe Neuwirth, Reva Rice, Pia Douwes and Ute Lemper. She was portrayed by Lisa Kelly in the Irish production. Samantha Barks starred as Velma in the 2013 Hollywood Bowl production.
In 1999, Neuwirth had to go back on stage and play Velma Kelly with only two days' notice because Lemper, who was supposed to play her, was battling laryngitis and the flu for two weeks so her doctor recommended that she take some time off to rest. In 1997, Neuwirth won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and a Fred Astaire Award for her performance as Velma Kelly. Neuwirth came back 10 years later and played the other murderess, Roxie Hart. In 2014, she appeared in a limited engagement as Mama Morton. The 2002 film version of the musical features Catherine Zeta-Jones as Velma Kelly. She received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Film Award for her role.
Prior to the 1975 debut of the stage musical, Kelly appeared in the earlier incarnations of Watkins' story. In the original non-musical play that debuted on December 30, 1926, and in the silent film version released on December 27, 1927, Velma had no last name and was a smaller role, billed as a "stylish divorcée" among the other inmates at the jail. This version of Velma was played by Juliette Crosby in the stage play and by Julia Faye in the silent film. In the 1942 film Roxie Hart, she was given the last name Wall and portrayed by Helene Reynolds.

Musical numbers

Throughout the musical, Velma Kelly has many songs and dances that she performs, whether it be by herself or with an ensemble of people.
The musical numbers she performs are: