Wopat, Marroquin, MacLeod and Ryan to Head Cast of Chicago Tour

By Andrew Gans
16 Sep 2008

Bianca Marroquin as Roxie Hart
Bianca Marroquin as Roxie Hart
Photo by Len Prince

Initial casting has been announced for the tenth national tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Chicago.

Tom Wopat will head the cast of the North American tour in the role of slick lawyer Billy Flynn. Wopat, who was Tony-nominated last season for his work in A Catered Affair, is currently playing the role of Flynn in the Broadway production of Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre.

Flynn will be joined on the tour — which kicks off Nov. 11 at the Belk Theatre in Charlotte, NC — by Bianca Marroquin as Roxie Hart, Terra C. MacLeod as Velma Kelly and Roz Ryan as Matron "Mama" Morton. Complete casting will be announced shortly.

The current 2008-2009 tour itinerary follows:
Nov. 11-16 at the Belk Theater in Charlotte, NC
Nov. 21-23 at Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton, WI
Dec. 2-7 at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, NC
Dec. 9-14 at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, MA
Dec. 31, 2008-Jan. 4, 2009 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
Jan. 6-11, 2009 at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix, AZ
Jan. 14-18, 2009 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose, CA

Additional cities and dates will be announced soon.

"Set amidst the razzle-dazzle decadence of the 1920s," Chicago, press notes state, "is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who maliciously murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago's slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today's tabloids."

Chicago won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 1997 as well as awards for actors Bebe Neuwirth and James Naughton, director Walter Bobbie, lighting designer Ken Billington and choreographer Ann Reinking. The original production was directed and choreographed by the late Bob Fosse.

In New York Chicago, by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, plays the Ambassador Theatre, 219 W. 49th St.

For more information visit www.ChicagoTheMusical.com.