Reece Weaver will stay on as Roxie Hart at the Ambassador Theatre for a further two weeks, playing Chicago through Sunday, November 1. The extension keeps her in the longest-running American musical in Broadway history through the end of October.
The Broadway company of Chicago announced the extension on September 24, putting it down to demand. Reece Weaver’s final performance as Roxie Hart is now Sunday, November 1, two weeks later than previously scheduled.
Weaver reached the role from professional dance rather than from musical theater. She danced on the University of Alabama Dance Team and took a degree in dance before joining the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders with the 2023 rookie class, where she spent three seasons.
Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is what put her in front of a national audience, and she has kept a large following on social media since. She is originally from Jacksonville, Florida.
She plays opposite Lissa deGuzman as Velma Kelly, Max von Essen as Billy Flynn, Natasha Yvette Williams as Matron “Mama” Morton, Red Concepción as Amos Hart and J. Workman as Mary Sunshine. The company also includes Tia Altinay, Ronnie S. Bowman Jr., Austin Dunn, John Michael Fiumara, Danielle Marie Gonzalez, Chelsea James, Christopher Kelley, James T. Lane, Jenny Laroche, Marty Lawson, Joseph London, Kristen Faith Oei, Denny Paschall, Angel Reda, Mariah Reives, Sean Samuels, Jeff Sullivan and Elizabeth Yanick.
Set in the 1920s, the musical follows Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who shoots the lover threatening to leave her, then hires the slickest criminal lawyer in the city to turn a murder charge into a run of sympathetic headlines. Her cellmate and rival for the front page is Velma Kelly.
Chicago has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. Produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, it won six Tony Awards in 1997, among them Best Musical Revival, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Recording.
Walter Bobbie directs, with choreography by Ann Reinking, set design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by William Ivey Long, lighting design by Ken Billington and sound design by Scott Lehrer. Casting is by DEFINE/Duncan Stewart, CSA, and Alecia Parker is executive producer.
Chicago runs at the Ambassador Theatre, 219 W 49th Street. Performances are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2:30pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm. The box office is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 8:30pm and Sunday from noon to 7:30pm, and tickets are also sold at ChicagoTheMusical.com.
