The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be Krysta Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, most recently on Broadway in the new musical Smash, will step into the role of Roxie Hart in the record-breaking revival of Chicago beginning June 15 at the Ambassador Theatre. The Broadway favorite will succeed Rachel Schur.
The current cast of the Tony-winning revival features Sophie Carmen-Jones as Velma Kelly, Nik Walker as Billy Flynn, Jacqueline B. Arnold as Matron “Mama” Morton, Greg Hildreth as Amos Hart, and R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.
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The ensemble also includes Tia Altinay, Zach
Bravo, Austin Dunn, Jennifer Dunne, John Michael Fiumara, Danielle
Marie Gonzalez, Chelsea James, Christopher Kelley, James T. Lane, Jenny
Laroche, Marty Lawson, Joseph London, Kristen Faith Oei, Denny Paschall,
Mariah Reives, Sean Samuels, Samantha Sturm, and Jeff Sullivan.
On Broadway Rodriguez has also been seen as Cinderella in Into the Woods; in The Collaboration for Manhattan Theatre Club; and Ilse in the Deaf West revival of Spring Awakening, plus First Date, The Addams Family, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line, and Good Vibrations. Her numerous screen credits include Halston, Trial & Error, Smash, Daybreak, and more.
The revival of Chicago began life as one of the three annual Encores!
presentations offered by City Center. The musical opened on Broadway at
the Richard Rodgers Theatre November 14, 1996, where it remained
through February 1997. The musical transferred to the Shubert Theatre,
and played that house through January 26, 2003. The revival reopened at
the Ambassador Theatre January 29 that year.
Since its debut in 1996, Chicago has played in 36 countries
and been seen by 33 million people worldwide. It is now the
second-longest running show in Broadway history (after the now closed The Phantom of the Opera).
READ: How the Chicago Costumes Have Evolved Over 25 Years
With a book by the late Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Ebb, Chicago
features direction by Walter Bobbie, choreography by the late Ann
Reinking, set design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by William Ivey
Long, lighting design by Ken Billington, sound design by Scott Lehrer,
and casting by ARC.
The current production, produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, won the
Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 1997 as well as awards for
actors Bebe Neuwirth and James Naughton, director Bobbie, lighting
designer Billington, and Reinking. The original production was directed
and choreographed by the late Fosse.