page: 1 2 3 4   April 10, 1986 Broadway Theatre Bob Fosse Bob Fosse Various artists As Bob Fosse explained it, the impetus for "Big Deal," his last production before his death in 1987, was a repudiation of his own success. Based on the film "Big Deal on Madonna Street," the musical followed a group of Depression-era Chicago crooks as they goofed their way through a failed robbery. Fosse said of the show's main character, Charley, "That's my part! A swaggering bumbler who thinks he's a ladies' man, and he's not." "Big Deal" poster.