NEW YORK (AP) — The murderous, washed-up chorus girl Roxie Hart is the beating, biting heart of Broadway mainstay “Chicago,” but no single actor owns her. She instead belongs to a sisterhood of performers who seemingly have little in common besides donning a bowler hat and slinking across the stage.
There are the musical theater professionals far from household names. Others, much like Roxie herself, have notoriety but little stage experience. Some are on the cusp of fame. Some are looking to reclaim the spotlight.
Since 1996, the list of Roxies has included Brooke Shields, Mel B, Lisa Rinna, Ashlee Simpson, “Pose” star Angelica Ross and Ariana Madix of “Vanderpump Rules.”
“‘Chicago’ is different,” says Barry Weissler, a lead producer with his wife, Fran. “It welcomes people constantly. There’s never a locked door where we’re concerned.”
Roxie isn't a cute role: She kills her lover and tries to get her dimwitted husband to take the blame. She grows insatiably hungry for fame and teams up with rival Velma to cash in. The revival's decades-long run is attributable in part to often casting celebrities to lead a show about the venality of celebrity.
“We talk about celebrity and how celebrity is glorified. And yet, in a way, we glorify it,” says choreographer Greg Butler, who helps prepare actors in Los Angeles.
Glorified though they may be, the stars still have to perform. So how does “Chicago” turn a reality star into Roxie?
Step 1: Find a Roxie
Once or twice a year, casting director Duncan Stewart spends $400 at a newsstand. He hands the trove of magazines — Ebony, People, Variety, you name it — to his staff.
His instructions: “There are no bad ideas. Circle everybody from these magazines and just write in black pen, ‘Roxie,’ ‘Velma,’ ‘Billy,’ ‘Amos,’ ‘Mama.’”
The names go into a spreadsheet, which goes to the marketing team and producers, who score the names from one to five. One is terrible. Three, four and five prompt pursuit.
Step 2: Pitch the Roxie
Stewart emphasizes the part’s glamour and relative ease in negotiations.
“You don’t have to dress up as a spoon or a fork. You don’t have to dress up in green paint and sing through the stratosphere,” he says, adding a celebrity can secure their Broadway legacy in essentially two months.
Some celebrities mull for years. Some need just days. They sign up for different reasons: Broadway is on their bucket list. Their latest tour sold poorly. They were recently divorced. They’re doing it for their kids.
“They need some way of saying to the world, ‘I’m worthy. I can prove my mettle,’” says Stewart.
The ARC vice president then delivers a dossier with the potential Roxie's background details and YouTube footage to the Weisslers, who give the green light.
Step 3: Roxie's boot camp
“We try to meet them where they are,” says Butler, an associate choreographer since 2005 who was a dance captain in the show.
“They have something that you can’t really teach them. They understand the idea of celebrity,” he says. Butler usually asks the Roxie-to-be to draw on what they know: red carpets, news conferences, paparazzi pictures. They go from there.
The original “Chicago” debuted on Broadway in 1975, directed by Bob Fosse. Butler credits Ann Reinking — the iconic Fosse collaborator who originated Roxie in the 1996 revival and created the Fosse-style choreography — with cracking how to accommodate each Roxie's skillset. An intricate sequence known as The Cakewalk in “Hot Honey Rag” can be modified into The Melanie, thanks to Reinking's work with Melanie Griffith.
“There’s new parts of my body that are sore that I didn’t know would actually get sore,” says Alyssa Milano, one of the newest Roxies, in the middle of her boot camp. “And I’ve been a dancer all my life.”
Step 4: Learn Roxie's secret
Each Roxie needs to memorize their lines, sing and make it down a ladder in heels. But there's a secret: She has two really big songs — “Funny Honey” and “Roxie” — but the role isn’t as physically taxing as Velma's. And Roxie will always be taken care of.
“I always say when we bring these celebrities in, we must protect them so that everyone around them and every other part is a full-blooded Broadway pro,” director Walter Bobbie reveals.
In “Roxie,” the merry murderess is surrounded by smitten, superb male dancers.
“Roxie could simply stand there and have seven men adore her and the number is delivered,” Bobbie says.
When Melora Hardin made her Broadway debut in late 2008, she laughs that the crowd seemed more impressed by her somersault than nailing her Fosse steps.
Step 5: Roxie takes the stage
For showtime, the team tries to incorporate the star's signatures. Underneath Pamela Anderson's dress, for instance, the costume shop added fabric that looked like a bathing suit bottom, a nod to “Baywatch.”
“No one in the show tries to imitate anybody else’s performance. I always try to say, ‘I don’t want you to play Roxie. I want you to find the Roxie in yourself,’” Bobbie says.
Roxie has been kicking for more than 11,000 Broadway performances, despite recession, storms, a pandemic and an Oscar-winning adaptation — making “Chicago” the second longest-running show in Broadway history.
Bobbie bristles at critics who deride the revolving door as a gimmick: “You can call it stunt casting all you want. There’s an authenticity to it.”
He argues that “Chicago” will always be different than other shows.
“The guy doesn't get the girl. The girl gets the girl,” he says with a laugh. “This is about a romance with show business.”
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This story has been corrected to remove Jinkx Monsoon from the list of Roxies; the “RuPaul's Drag Race” winner played Matron “Mama” Morton.
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
