Celebs who hit big — and didnt — in Chicago on…
The musical “Chicago” has a killer observe document of guessing who the next title on all people’s lips is gonna be.
Whether it’s Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Pamela Anderson, Christie Brinkley, Ariana Madix or Usher, producers Fran and Barry Weissler have long embraced hiring untested stars who haven’t only never been on Broadway, but have no affiliation with theater by any means.
Can they sing? Can they dance? Can they promote?
Whitney Leavitt set a box workplace document for “Chicago” in March. Andrew H. Walker / Shutterstock
The couple’s dangerous strategy has paid off — effectively, most of the time — turning the revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Seventies musical about a pair of Windy City murderesses into the current longest-running show on Broadway and second-longest of all time after “The Phantom of the Opera.” It’s an $800 million machine.
Every time “Chicago” begins to sag and the sharks odor blood, in goes a well-known face.
So, who’s given the box workplace the outdated razzle dazzle and who’s given it the fizzle fizzle?
Leavitt got here from “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” and “Dancing with the Stars.”
The Weisslers’ latest gamble is Whitney Leavitt.
Far from Lea Michele or Idina Menzel, Leavitt, 32, is the star of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” the Hulu actuality TV show, and a “Dancing with the Stars” Season 34 contestant. She got here in sixth.
But she’s firmly in first place in this race. Earlier this month, Leavitt drove the 29-year-old manufacturing — practically as outdated as she is — to its highest-grossing week ever with $1.4 million in ticket gross sales.
An usher at the Ambassador Theatre who’d never heard of her until now said of the followers’ cheers, “It’s like Yankee Stadium in here!”
Leavitt’s run has been prolonged until May 3.
Melanie Griffith celebrates the tenth anniversary of “Chicago,” the show she starred in. WireImage
The first major celeb to show “Chicago”’s stunt casting model actually may work was the “Working Girl” herself.
In 2003, when the musical was a spry seven years outdated and had already been tailored into the 2002 Oscar-winning hit movie starring Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Melanie Griffith was tapped to play Roxie Hart.
Why would a film star with no stage resume take on the function of the unhappily married flapper who shoots and kills her lover and claims self-defense with the help of her slick lawyer Billy Flynn?
Griffith was in a profession hunch, and her personal life had turn into gossip column fodder. But then-husband Antonio Banderas was showing across the road in “Nine,” and the time dedication was less than three months.
Although the “Working Girl” star was in a profession hunch in Hollywood, she was a sizzling ticket in “Chicago.”
Rehearsals weren’t simple, The Post’s Michael Riedel reported. Choreographer and authentic Roxie, Ann Reinking, had to alter the Bob Fosse dances for her. And at one level Griffith needed to delay her start date by a week.
But sooner or later before she was set to start, she carried out the show for an viewers of three — Banderas, Chita Rivera and Barry Weissler — and acquired the arrogance to go forward.
The headline on Clive Barnes’ Post review read “Melanie can’t sing, dance or act, but she’s a star.” All the critics liked her.
That’s key. Griffith established an important precedent for future bold-facer Roxies: To be great, you don’t need to be a triple-threat. You can even be a no-threat. Just be you.
The actress proved a large draw, and all people agreed she was Roxie. Griffith offered more than $1 million in tickets before her first evening, and then performed to standing-room-only homes for her whole run.
Who ought to come next? And why stop at Roxie?
Brooke Shields performed Roxie in London and New York. FilmMagic
Other established screen actresses adopted, though conventional thespians have turned out to be one its least fruitful swimming pools money-wise.
There was Brooke Shields, contemporary off of the sitcom “Suddenly Susan,” who first performed Roxie in London.
While she was performing across the pond in 2005, Tom Cruise, then 42, went on the “Today” show and attacked her anti-depressant use, which she’d overtly mentioned in her memoir “Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.” Cruise, being a Scientologist, called Shields “irresponsible.”
They both reached for the gun. She shot back at Cruise, who was courting 26-year-old Katie Holmes at the time, saying, “If he wants to see ‘Chicago’, I’ve left him two tickets — one adult, one child.”
Casting stars such as Shields (left) and Griffith (proper) has stored “Chicago” going for practically 30 years. Getty Images
The West End liked the drama.
When Shields hoofed it over to Broadway that September, she didn’t fairly do Griffith’s numbers. The actress was less of a shock stateside as she’d already appeared in “Grease,” “Cabaret” and “Wonderful Town.” But she boosted the home to 90% capability for some of her stint.
Drama is clearly a draw. So, in 2006, well-liked rom-com actress and Tom Hanks’ spouse Rita Wilson was not the most dependable Roxie. Her grosses hovered around $450,000 a week — respectable for a decade-old show 20 years in the past, but half the business that “Mamma Mia!” was doing. Still, audiences loved her.
Christie Brinkley acquired horrible reviews, but she still offered tickets. Bruce Glikas/WireImage
Not true of model and Billy Joel’s ex-wife Christie Brinkley, who took over Roxie in 2011 at age 57. Fans online slammed her efficiency. And the Daily News wrote “there was a vacancy sign over Brinkley’s blank interpretation.” Oh effectively. The “Uptown Girl” moved enough tickets that she was requested back in 2019, when she was 65.
A more latest film star who didn’t make a lot of a dent with audiences or money registers was Mira Sorvino last fall.
Word of mouth was dire for the “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” star, and some weeks the Oscar winner performed to as low as 68% capability — not what you need from a recognized entity.
That’s a lot better, however, than Miss USA Tara Conner, who has the distinctive distinction of promoting $0 of tickets.
In 2007, the Weisslers had been secretly rehearsing Conner as Roxie in a Chelsea studio.
Like some of her predecessors, Conner was embroiled in a scandal. Three months after being topped in 2006, she was caught ingesting underage and snorting cocaine in a New York nightclub. To keep away from dropping her title, pageant proprietor Donald Trump despatched her to rehab.
And then, straight to dance class!
Tara Conner never went on as Roxie, despite rehearsing in secret. ASSOCIATED PRESS
“They’ve been putting her through her paces to see if she’s up to it,” a source said at the time.
“Assuming both sides are comfortable, then this will be a win-win for all parties,” Barry told The Post after the news leaked. “We look forward to making a positive announcement about her joining the ‘Chicago’ family.”
They made no announcement. Conner was let go two weeks later.
Perhaps no one has seen a sharper profession turnaround after dancing the “Hot Honey Rag,” though, than “Baywatch” actress and Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson.
At 54, she started her two-month run as Roxie in April 2022, setting the media ablaze when Broadway was still limping along post-COVID.
I used to be there at her first efficiency, and said in my review, “Pam might as well have been Ethel Merman considering the roars.”
“Chicago” was the start of a major second act for Pamela Anderson. Getty Images
A rush of initial enthusiasm that week shot grosses up by practically $300K to $829K. Yet no one realized this was the start of a showbiz second act.
Three years later, Anderson obtained her first Golden Globe nomination for the dramatic movie “The Last Showgirl,” and co-starred with Liam Neeson in the acclaimed “Naked Gun” reboot. This spring, her new film, “Rosebush Pruning,” premiered at the celebrated Berlin Film Festival.
But we are able to’t let the ladies have all the enjoyable.
Usher was a large draw when he performed Billy Flynn. Getty Images
Between Griffith and a latest run of profitable TV stars, “Chicago”’s most energizing rent was a man — Usher.
The R&B star, who was 27 then, performed Billy Flynn in summer time 2006 — and lots of of followers poured onto forty ninth Street to catch a glimpse of the well-known musician getting out of a convertible at the stage door. Grosses skyrocketed, too, up to more than $800,000 a week.
When he caught strep throat and had to bow out of his ultimate eight performances, the take plummeted by $400,000.
“We just hope Usher gets healthy soon,” Barry told The Post at the time. “He was one of the best Billy Flynns we’ve ever had.”
Could that be because he earned the show an estimated revenue of $1.7 million in seven weeks?
When he caught strep throat during his ultimate week of performances, the box workplace gross dropped by $400,000. WireImage
Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. also performed Billy in 2018. Unlike Usher, ticketbuyers have said he was one of the worst Flynns they’d ever seen.
Meh. During his run, “Chicago” was nonetheless outselling “Kinky Boots,” “School of Rock” and “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.”
But for nation singer and Miley’s dad Billy Ray Cyrus, the job broke his coronary heart, his achy, breaky coronary heart. The Ambassador stayed about 65% offered while he was performing “All I Care About Is Love.”
Cuba Gooding Jr.’s phrase of mouth was horrible — but it didn’t have an effect on gross sales. Getty Images
In latest years the show has been super-charged by a dose of actuality.
The top three “Chicago” money cows ever are, in fact, unscripted-series regulars, who, like Leavitt, introduced a non-traditional, voracious fanbase to Broadway.
Jinkx Monsoon, who gained Season 13 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” broke a box workplace document in 2023 enjoying Matron Mama Morton.
And Ariana Madix of “Vanderpump Rules” gave the show its highest non-holiday week in 2024 as Roxie.
“Chicago” may run another three many years on Bravo alone.
The latest pattern is actuality TV stars such as Ariana Madix. Bruce Glikas/WireImage
The revival of “Chicago” will have a good time its thirtieth anniversary in November, in large half thanks to shoving stars onstage — good, dangerous or downright unwatchable.
The musical’s stunt casting is so well-known it was parodied last week on the Season 3 premiere of HBO’s “The Comeback,” starring Lisa Kudrow as washed-up actress Valerie Cherish.
When an unprepared Valerie steps into the half of Roxie, it’s a a lot larger problem than she anticipated.
“Maybe I should’ve seen the show before I said, ‘Yes’,” she tells her husband. “The music never stops, song after song. It’s relentless!”
That’s “Chicago”!
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