Chita Rivera, Lillias White, Karen Ziemba, Brent Barrett Will Be Part of Free Chicago Facebook Performance

By Andrew Gans
27 Jan 2011

Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera
Photo by Laura Marie Duncan

A host of former Chicago performers will make a special appearance at the Jan. 30 at 2:30 PM performance of the Tony-winning revival. That performance of the Kander and Ebb musical at the Ambassador Theatre will mark the first time that a Broadway show fills its house entirely with Facebook fans, who will all attend the show free of charge.

The performance, which will be hosted by Julie James and Seth Rudetsky of SiriusXM Radio's "On Broadway" channel, will feature special appearances by Tony Award winner Chita Rivera (Broadway's original Velma Kelly), Olivier Award winner Ute Lemper (London's original Velma Kelly), Vincent Pastore (Amos Hart), Tony Award winner Lillias White (Matron "Mama" Morton), Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba (Roxie Hart), Brent Barrett (Billy Flynn), Rob Bartlett (Amos Hart), Amra-Faye Wright (Velma Kelly) and Carol Woods (Matron "Mama" Morton). Producer Barry Weissler will also be part of the celebration.

The current cast includes Bianca Marroquin (Roxie Hart), Leigh Zimmerman (Velma Kelly), Colman Domingo (Billy Flynn), Robert Creighton (Amos Hart) and LaVon Fisher-Wilson (Matron "Mama" Morton).

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 in Nov. 1996 where it remained through Feb. 1997. The musical transferred to the Shubert Theatre on Feb. 11, 1997, and played that house through Jan. 26, 2003. The revival reopened at the Ambassador Theatre, its current home, on Jan. 29, 2003.

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.

The Ambassador Theatre is located at 219 West 49th Street.

All tickets to the free performance have already been obtained by Facebook followers.