Chicago will mark 30 years on Broadway with a one-night-only gala performance at the Ambassador Theatre on Monday, November 16 at 7pm, with all proceeds going to the Entertainment Community Fund’s programs serving dancers. Original company members Bebe Neuwirth and James Naughton head the guest list.
The evening is the production’s official 30th anniversary celebration, and the milestone carries its own weight: Chicago is the longest-running show on Broadway and the longest-running American musical in history, so the gala honors a record the show is still adding to.
Joining Neuwirth and Naughton on the night are Robyn Hurder, Whitney Leavitt, Ariana Madix, Alex Newell and Reece Weaver, the company’s current Roxie Hart. Further celebrity guests are to be announced later. Crossroads Live and the John Gore Organization are among the event’s supporters.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday, October 15 at 10am ET, through Telecharge or by phone at 212-239-6200. More information is posted at entertainmentcommunity.org/Chicago30.
The beneficiary, the Entertainment Community Fund, was known as The Actors Fund until it changed its name. It is a national human services organization for people who work in the performing arts and entertainment, with services covering health and wellness, career and life, and housing, and it has been providing that safety net since 1882.
The production
Chicago has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Ebb. Produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, it won six Tony Awards in 1997, Best Musical Revival among them, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Recording; its awards also include two Olivier Awards.
The staging is directed by Walter Bobbie with choreography by Ann Reinking, both Tony Award winners, as are its designers: John Lee Beatty (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Ken Billington (lighting) and Scott Lehrer (sound). Casting is by DEFINE/Duncan Stewart, CSA, and Alecia Parker is executive producer.
The current Broadway company has Weaver as Roxie Hart opposite Lissa deGuzman as Velma Kelly, with Max von Essen as Billy Flynn, Natasha Yvette Williams as Matron “Mama” Morton, Red Concepcion as Amos Hart and J. Workman as Mary Sunshine.
The musical is set in 1920s Chicago. Roxie, a housewife who dances in nightclubs, kills the lover who is about to walk out on her, then hires the city’s smoothest criminal attorney and turns her trial into a run of sensational headlines, outmaneuvering the press, the public and her rival on the cell block, Velma.
The gala sits outside the regular schedule. Tickets for all other performances are sold through Telecharge, by phone at 212-239-6200 and at the Ambassador Theatre box office, 219 W 49th St.
