Video: The Cast of BILLIE JEAN at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre
The production runs July 18–August 10, 2025, in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
The comapny of Billie Jean at the Chicago Theatre shares their thoughts and excitement for the upcoming production from the rehearsal room! The production runs July 18–August 10, 2025, in The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. See the video here!
Playwright Lauren Gunderson, one of the most-produced playwrights in the US, and director Marc Bruni (Broadway’s The Great Gatsby and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), team up to stage this empowering new look at a legend who shattered glass ceilings on and off the court. Following her path to becoming a sports icon, from her record-breaking victories to her relentless fight for equal pay and equal rights, Billie Jean explores the cost of public battles and private struggles—bringing us closer than ever before to a woman whose battle for identity and equality inspired and continues to inspire generations.
Chilina Kennedy stars as Billie Jean King, leading a cast that also includes Julia Antonelli, Dan Amboyer, Elena Hurst, Courtney Rikki Green, Wynn Harmon, Carolyn Holding, Jürgen Hooper, Callie Rachelle Johnson, Lenne Klingaman, Nancy Lemenager, and Murphy Taylor Smith.
Named one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century” by Life magazine, Billie Jean King is the first woman athlete to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the first individual woman athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. She is the founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Women’s Tennis Association and the Billie Jean King Foundation. She is part of the ownership groups of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Angel City FC and a member of the Advisory Board of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). In 2020, King became the first woman to have an annual global team sports event named in her honor when Fed Cup, the women’s world cup of tennis, was rebranded as the Billie Jean King Cup. The National Tennis Center, home of the US Open, was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006 in honor of her accomplishments on and off the court.
Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s world premiere production of Billie Jean is developed by special arrangement with four-time Tony-winning producer Harriet Newman Leve (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, War Horse, Stomp) and Stephanie Sandberg (former Executive Director of LPAC, dedicated to elevating LGBTQ women as a political force), with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner (powerhouse creative duo in television, sound recording, film, theater, and animation for more than 40 years).
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