Lillias White Takes Over as Mama Morton in Chicago, Jan. 30
By: BWW News Desk Jan. 10, 2006
Tony Award-winner Lillias White will begin performances as the next Matron "Mama" Morton in the Broadway company of Chicago on January 30th; she will play the brassy prison warden through April 23rd.
White will replace Debra Monk in the long-running smash revival; she will join a cast that will include Robin Givens as Roxie Hart, "Seinfeld" star John O'Hurley as Billy Flynn, Bruce Winant as the hapless Amos Hart and South African actress Amra-Faye Wright as Velma Kelly; they will join the cast on January 16th.
White, who is known for an extensive vocal range, won a Tony Award for her performance in The Life. She has previously appeared on Broadway in Once On This Island, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carrie, Dreamgirls (both the original production and the 1987 revival) and Cats, among others. Other credits include Purlie at Encores! and the Actors' Fund benefit concerts of Dreamgirls, Funny Girl and Hair.
For more information, visit www.chicagothemusical.com.
White will replace Debra Monk in the long-running smash revival; she will join a cast that will include Robin Givens as Roxie Hart, "Seinfeld" star John O'Hurley as Billy Flynn, Bruce Winant as the hapless Amos Hart and South African actress Amra-Faye Wright as Velma Kelly; they will join the cast on January 16th.
White, who is known for an extensive vocal range, won a Tony Award for her performance in The Life. She has previously appeared on Broadway in Once On This Island, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carrie, Dreamgirls (both the original production and the 1987 revival) and Cats, among others. Other credits include Purlie at Encores! and the Actors' Fund benefit concerts of Dreamgirls, Funny Girl and Hair.
The revival of Chicago,
which opened on November 14th 1996, has reached a run of over 3,800
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, Chicago, which features a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse, received
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 Fosse in its original 1975
production.
The show currently features Charlotte D'Amboise as Roxie, Brenda Braxton as Velma, P.J. Benjamin as Amos, Huey Lewis as Billy Flynn and R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.
