Woods, who has previously appeared as the Matron on Broadway and on national tour, will succeed Mary Testa (On the Town, A New Brain), who departs Broadway's longest-running revival on July 24th. Woods has signed on to star in Chicagothrough September 4th. She will join a cast that currently features Luba Mason as Velma Kelly, Charlotte d'Amboise as Roxie Hart, Christopher McDonald as Billy Flynn, P.J. Benjamin as Amos Hart, R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.Woods last appeared on Broadway in One Mo' Time; other credits include the Roundabout revival of Follies, The Goodbye Girl, A Little Hotel on the Side, The Crucible, Stepping Out and the ill-fated Harold Prince-directed musical Grind. She received an Olivier Award nomination for her performance in London's Blues in the Night, and also appeared in The National Theatre's production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. At home in musicals and drama alike, she is one of the founders of the National Actors Theatre.
The revival of Chicago,
which opened on November 14th 1996, has reached a run of over 3, 500
performances. Currently at the Ambassador Theatre (215 W. 49th St.), it has yo-yoed from
the Richard Rodgers Theatre to the Shubert Theatre to the present one.
The Chicago revival opened
with Ann Reinking as Roxie, Bebe Neuwirth as Velma, Joel Grey as Amos
and James Naughton as Billy. Under Walter Bobbie's direction and
Reinking's choreography, Chicagoreceived
6 1997 Tonys (including Best Revival of a Musical). The revival, based
on Bobbie's stylistically stripped-down Encores! staging, featured
direction and choreography by Bob Fosse in its original 1975
production.