After Detroit, the production moved to Chicago where it ran for a year. All post-opening cast replacements (see full credits page) are replacements during the Chicago run.
When the show opened in Chicago, the pressure was on. Variety published an estimate that No, No, Nanette would have to sell $14,000 worth of tickets to break even. In the second week, the show only sold $11,000. The future was dire, even though the majority of the Chicago reviews were favorable. However, the press agent, Charles Emerson Cooke, got Chicago newspapers to run stories saying that the producer believed so strongly in the show that he refused to let the Chicago critics kill it. The stories worked and the weekly gross climbed by $2,000. When Louise Groody and Charles Winninger came in to replace Phyllis Cleveland (Nanette) and Skeets Gallagher (Jimmy) during the fourth week of the run, the grosses climbed to over $15,000. The matinees, however, did slow business. In the fifth week, Frazee brought in Blanche Ring to replace Anna Wheaton as Lucille. Ring was a favorite among the club women who frequented the matinees. The following week, matinees began selling out.
With each cast change, the critics were invited back to review the show again. The notices kept getting better and better. One critic remarked that it was "worth seeing twice". And audiences kept returning to see their favorite stars. And hear songs that began to rise in popularity. Soon the show looked like it might be able to recoup the $75,000 that Frazee had sunk into it to fix it.
In mid-June, a medical convention was in town and the grossed climbed to over $20,000. Soon after, one of the Duncan Sisters who were performing in the pre-Broadway run of Topsy and Eva, had an altercation with a traffic cop. Because she had a black eye and bruises, she was out of the show for three nights and tickets had to be refunded. Angry customers went to No, No, Nanette instead. Frazee publicized the surge in business and Chicagoans seemed to wonder what they had been missing.
The Chicago run was supposed be four weeks long. It kept getting extended due to high ticket sales. Frazee cancelled plans to move the production to New York after Labor Day. Soon the show was selling out at $23,000 per week.
When the production finally left Chicago for Broadway, it had run for 49 weeks and had done $850,000 in ticket sales, quite a sum for the 1920s.
During the Chicago run, director Edward Royce had other commitments in New York. Producer H. H. Frazee had to let him go and took over direction. Ever the publicity hound, Frazee spread the rumor that he fired Royce (who was a prominent musical comedy director of the time). Frazee cut five songs and replaced them with others that have become standards including "Tea for Two" and "I Want to Be Happy". He also replaced the Phyllis Cleveland in the role of Nanette with Louise Groody, Skeets Gallagher as Jimmy with Charles Winninger, Francis X. Donegan in the role of Jimmy with Bernard Granville, and Juliette Day in the role of Sue with Muriel Hudson. He brought in Ziegfeld choreographer Sammy Lee to work with the new cast.
The Chicago run was meant to be part of the pre-Broadway tryout. However, business kept getting better and the show kept getting extended, eventually staying in Chicago for a year. In the meantime, Frazee sent out other companies. One company played Philadelphia and other eastern cities. Another company went to Los Angeles and the west. And a third company went to London for a 2-year run there.
The main song list reflects the opening night song list for the Chicago run.
