Photo Coverage: CHICAGO Kicks Off 16th U.S. Tour With Post-Performance Party at Marti's

New Orleans, LA (NOLA)--Cocktails named after some of the show stopping musical numbers from the smash Broadway musical CHICAGO greeted the cast, crew, and guests at a post-performance party at Marti's, a bistro in the French Quarter, late Tuesday night. CHICAGO's current tour cast, headlined by Bianca Marroquin (Roxie Hart), Terra C. MacLeod (Velma Kelly), John O'Hurley (Billy Flynn in select cities), Jacob Keith Watson (Amos Hart), Roz Ryan (Matron "Mama" Morton), and C. Newcomer (Mary Sunshine), kicked off CHICAGO's 16th U.S. Tour at the newly reopened atmospheric theatre in NOLA, the 2,736-seater Saenger Theatre along Canal Street, with a rapturous standing ovation from a packed audience earlier that evening.

CHICAGO's week-long performances at Saenger Theatre will be followed by local runs at Montgomery Performing Arts Center in Montgomery, AL (October 13 to 14, 2014); Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend, IN (October 17 to 19, 2014); Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville, TN (October 21 to 26, 2014); Christopher Cohan Center in San Luis Obispo, CA (November 4 to 5, 2014); and Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, CA (November 7 to 16, 2014).

The same cast (except O'Hurley, who plays the slick and sleazy lawyer Flynn) and crew will fly over the Pacific to premiere CHICAGO at The Theatre at Solaire in Manila, Philippines (December 3 to 21, 2014).

Interestingly, both CHICAGO's current U.S. Tour and impending Philippine premiere coincide with the awarding of the John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse musical as the second-longest running show in Broadway history as its revival production, which opened in 1996, is poised to surpass Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh's "Cats'" record-breaking 7,486 performances on November 23, 2014. To celebrate the momentous occasion, CHICAGO's 1996 stars Ann Reinking (Roxie Hart; she also choreographed this particular production in the style of Fosse); Bebe Neuwirth (Velma Kelly); Joel Grey (Amos Hart); and James Naughton (Billy Flynn) will return to the Broadway production in cameo roles, directed by the show's original director, Walter Bobbie, next month at Ambassador Theatre.

"Set amidst the razzle-dazzle decadence of the 1920s, CHICAGO is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media, and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago's slickest criminal lawyer, Billy Flynn, to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today's tabloids," says the show's official synopsis.

CHICAGO gained worldwide popularity among mainstream audiences when its film version, which stars Renee Zellweger (Roxie Hart), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly), and Richard Gere (Billy Flynn)--Rob Marshall choreographs and directs--was released in 2002, and won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2003.

For tickets to the U.S. Tour, visit chicagothemusical.com/ustour.php.

For tickets to the Manila, Philippines' run, visit ticketworld.com.ph.

Photos: Oliver Oliveros

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