In the 1981/82 season, three Hungarian theatres independently presented one of the greatest Broadway hits of the era, Chicago, and this coincidence highlighted the possible directions of Hungarian musical theatre practice that pointed beyond operettas. Both audiences and official cultural policy were fascinated by the Kaposvár ensemble and the director Ascher, and this situation was made even more visible by the premier of a popular product of the American entertainment industry. This paper reconstructs that this ‘fundamentally biological genre’ can be enjoyable and effective without descending into kitsch, and it can even possess an edge of social critique – in fact this is where its true power lies.