Crime is a tangled web, Chicago tells us, but nothing is as tangled and complicated as the spring comings and goings of the East Coast leads of the smash musical hit on Broadway and on tour.
Who is the next Roxie to rock Broadway's Chicago?
Belle Calaway, who played merry murderess Roxie on national tour, will step into the Broadway company May 25-31, the first week that Sandy Duncan was to play the role there. Duncan is still recovering from a broken foot and is expected to join the Broadway company at the Shubert Theatre June 1.
In the meantime, until May 23, Karen Ziemba continues as Roxie on Broadway.
Ruthie Henshall, as scheduled, also joins the Broadway company May 25 (her Broadway debut), as Velma. The British Henshall originated the role of Roxie in the London version of the revival of the John Kander-Fred Ebb Bob Fosse musical. She leaves the tour in Boston (at Boston's Shubert Theatre) May 16 to prepare for the Broadway gig. At the Boston Shubert, Ann Reinking is expected to continue as Roxie to May 30. Her co-star as Velma (replacing the departed Henshall) May 18-30 will be Deidre Goodwin.
Nancy Hess steps out of the Broadway company as Velma May 16 to be replaced by Mamie Duncan-Gibbs May 18-23, prior to Henshall.
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Calaway went on as Roxie in Beantown April 22-25 while Reinking geared up to begin shows after a year of shepherding the new Broadway revue, Fosse.
Reinking won a 1997 Tony Award for Best Choreography for staging the songs "in the style of Bob Fosse." The actress-dancer first made a New York splash as a featured dancer in Fosse's revue, Dancin', and starred in the musical, Goodtime Charley, as a singing St. Joan.
Henshall, who recently appeared as a sultry part of the "Encores!" concert version of Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, starred as Roxie in the London staging of the revival, but switched roles when she crossed the ocean.
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