In the musical adaptation, his style is based upon Ted Lewis. "All I Care About (is Love)" serves as Flynn's jingle, in which the crooner claims not to care about wealth or materialism and works for his love of women (later revealed to be a complete lie), "They Both Reached For The Gun (The Press Conference Rag)" serves as a ventriloquist act with a call-and-response between Billy's "dummy" Roxie and the press, and "Razzle Dazzle" (a champagnesque piece with what Jerry Orbach described as " Brechtian subtlety" ) serves as the explanation of Flynn's modus operandi: make the case a distraction so that the jury loses attention.įlynn is a composite character based on real-life Chicago attorneys of the era, William Scott Stewart and W. He considers his profession to be akin to the entertainment industry, with himself as an A-list star in the field. He will often turn trials into a media circus and public spectacle, regularly manipulates witnesses to fit his narratives (which usually have no resemblance to the truth), and keeps a tabloid sob sister, Mary Sunshine, on retainer to ensure positive press coverage for his clients. Most of Billy Flynn's clients actually did commit the murder they are accused of therefore he usually attempts to conjure a defense of self-defense or insanity. In the play, he defends Hart and her rival Velma Kelly, winning both cases. In rare cases, such as Roxie Hart's, he will take a discount rate in exchange for a cut of proceeds from selling ephemera and media rights fees related to the case. He has never lost a case involving a female defendant in his whole career, but in turn charges high fees for his services ($5,000), demands payment in full up-front, and never takes pro bono work. William Flynn is a fictional character from the 1926 play Chicago, written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, and its various derivative works and remakes.īilly Flynn is one of the city of Chicago's most effective criminal defense lawyers he can win any trial and usually represents women who have murdered their lovers. Like the rest of the score from the 1975 musical Chicago, Razzle Dazzle has music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format.Billy Flynn (at right) as portrayed by Jerry Orbach in the Broadway adaptation, 1976 The origin can be traced back to Proto-Germanic, but there the trail ends. compare with Swedish dasa "to lie idle, lay about" and Icelandic dasi "lay-about, laze fellow". The Old English verb dasen meant "be stunned, bewildered", borrowed from Old Norse (Viking) dasa "to become weary, fatigued". By Middle English it meant "to overpower with bright light". Razzle is a nonsense rhyme of dazzle, and dazzle was once an instrumental noun from daze, meaning "stupefaction, confusion". The underlying meaning is that of dazzle, but the decorative rhyme is a lovely distraction that conveys emphasis. Word History: Today's Good Word is a perfect example of an emphatic rhyming compound. Razzle-dazzle sometime can imply a distractive or even deceptive dazzling: "Singers of the past, like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, could attract large audiences without the razzle-dazzle of modern rock-and-role and rap shows." An excellent example of political razzle-dazzle is former President Trump's promise to build an impenetrable fence along the US southern border and make Mexico pay for it. In Play: Liberace was a past master of showbiz razzle-dazzle. The noun may be used as a verb meaning to create razzle-dazzle in any of its meanings. Notes: In the movie version of the musical comedy Chicago Richard Gere sings a song called "Razzle-Dazzle", explaining what catches the eye of the press and its public. A riotous noisy activity intended to impress people. Richard Gere Track 10 on Chicago (Music from the Miramax Motion Picture) Produced by Randy Spendlove & Ric Wake Tenth track from the 2002 Chicago soundtrack, which counts with the. Showy, flashy, dazzling display designed to attract attention. Razzle Dazzle Lyrics: Give em the old razzle dazzle / Razzle dazzle em / Give em an act with lots of flash in it / And the reaction will be passionate.
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