The musical \u201cChicago\u201d has a killer track record of guessing who the next name on everybody\u2019s lips is gonna be.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Pamela Anderson, Christie Brinkley, Ariana Madix or Usher, producers Fran and Barry Weissler have long embraced hiring untested stars who have not only never been on Broadway, but have no association with theater whatsoever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can they sing? Can they dance? Can they sell?<\/p>\n
Whitney Leavitt set a box office record for \u201cChicago\u201d in March. Andrew H. Walker \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s risky strategy has paid off \u2014 well, most of the time \u2014 turning the revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb\u2019s 1970s musical about a pair of Windy City murderesses into the current longest-running show on Broadway and second-longest of all time after \u201cThe Phantom of the Opera.\u201d It\u2019s an $800 million machine.<\/p>\n
Every time \u201cChicago\u201d starts to sag and the sharks smell blood, in goes a famous face.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, who\u2019s given the box office the old razzle dazzle and who\u2019s given it the fizzle fizzle?<\/p>\n
Leavitt came from \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives\u201d and \u201cDancing with the Stars.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Weisslers\u2019 latest gamble is Whitney Leavitt.<\/p>\n
Far from Lea Michele or Idina Menzel, Leavitt, 32, is the star of \u201cThe Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,\u201d the Hulu reality TV show, and a \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d Season 34 contestant. She came in 6th.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s firmly in first place in this race. Earlier this month, Leavitt drove the 29-year-old production \u2014 nearly as old as she is \u2014 to its highest-grossing week ever<\/a> with $1.4 million in ticket sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n An usher at the Ambassador Theatre who\u2019d never heard of her till now said of the fans\u2019 cheers, \u201cIt\u2019s like Yankee Stadium in here!\u201d<\/p>\n Leavitt\u2019s run has been extended until May 3.<\/p>\n Melanie Griffith celebrates the 10th anniversary of \u201cChicago,\u201d the show she starred in. WireImage<\/p>\n The first major celeb to prove \u201cChicago\u201d\u2019s stunt casting model really could work was the \u201cWorking Girl\u201d herself.<\/p>\n In 2003, when the musical was a spry seven years old and had already been adapted into the 2002 Oscar-winning hit film starring Ren\u00e9e Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Melanie Griffith was tapped to play Roxie Hart.\u00a0<\/p>\n Why would a movie star with no stage resume take on the role of the unhappily married flapper who shoots and kills her lover and claims self-defense with the help of her slick lawyer Billy Flynn?<\/p>\n Griffith was in a career slump, and her personal life had become gossip column fodder. But then-husband Antonio Banderas was appearing across the street in \u201cNine,\u201d and the time commitment was less than three months.<\/p>\n Although the \u201cWorking Girl\u201d star was in a career slump in Hollywood, she was a hot ticket in \u201cChicago.\u201d<\/p>\n Rehearsals weren\u2019t easy, The Post\u2019s Michael Riedel reported<\/a>. Choreographer and original Roxie, Ann Reinking, had to adjust the Bob Fosse dances for her. And at one point Griffith wanted to delay her start date by a week.<\/p>\n But one day before she was set to begin, she performed the show for an audience of three \u2014 Banderas, Chita Rivera and Barry Weissler \u2014 and got the confidence to go ahead.<\/p>\n The headline on Clive Barnes\u2019 Post review<\/a> read \u201cMelanie can\u2019t sing, dance or act, but she\u2019s a star.\u201d All the critics loved her.<\/p>\n That\u2019s key. Griffith established an important precedent for future bold-facer Roxies: To be great, you don\u2019t need to be a triple-threat. You can even be a no-threat. Just be you. <\/strong><\/p>\n The actress proved a huge draw, and everybody agreed she was Roxie. Griffith sold more than $1 million in tickets before her first night, and then played to standing-room-only houses for her entire run.<\/p>\n Who should come next? And why stop at Roxie?<\/p>\n Brooke Shields played Roxie in London and New York. FilmMagic<\/p>\n Other established screen actresses followed, though traditional thespians have turned out to be one its least fruitful pools money-wise.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was Brooke Shields, fresh off of the sitcom \u201cSuddenly Susan,\u201d who first played Roxie in London.<\/p>\n While she was performing across the pond in 2005, Tom Cruise, then 42, went on the \u201cToday\u201d show and attacked her anti-depressant use, which she\u2019d openly discussed in her memoir \u201cDown Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.\u201d Cruise, being a Scientologist, called Shields \u201cirresponsible.\u201d <\/p>\n They both reached for the gun. She shot back at Cruise<\/a>, who was dating 26-year-old Katie Holmes at the time, saying, \u201cIf he wants to see \u2018Chicago\u2019, I\u2019ve left him two tickets \u2014 one adult, one child.\u201d <\/p>\n Casting stars such as Shields (left) and Griffith (right) has kept \u201cChicago\u201d going for nearly 30 years. Getty Images<\/p>\n The West End loved the drama. <\/p>\n When Shields hoofed it over to Broadway that September, she didn\u2019t quite do Griffith\u2019s numbers. The actress was less of a surprise stateside as she\u2019d already appeared in \u201cGrease,\u201d \u201cCabaret\u201d and \u201cWonderful Town.\u201d But she boosted the house to 90% capacity for some of her stint.<\/p>\n Drama is clearly a draw. So, in 2006, well-liked rom-com actress and Tom Hanks\u2019 wife Rita Wilson was not the most reliable Roxie. Her grosses hovered around $450,000 a week \u2014 respectable for a decade-old show 20 years ago, but half the business that \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d was doing. Still, audiences enjoyed her.<\/p>\n Christie Brinkley got terrible reviews, but she still sold tickets. Bruce Glikas\/WireImage<\/p>\n Not true of model and Billy Joel\u2019s ex-wife Christie Brinkley, who took over Roxie in 2011 at age 57. Fans online slammed her performance. And the Daily News wrote \u201cthere was a vacancy sign over Brinkley\u2019s blank interpretation.\u201d Oh well. The \u201cUptown Girl\u201d moved enough tickets that she was asked back in 2019, when she was 65.<\/p>\n A more recent movie star who didn\u2019t make much of a dent with audiences or cash registers was Mira Sorvino last fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n Word of mouth was dire for the \u201cRomy and Michelle\u2019s High School Reunion\u201d star, and some weeks the Oscar winner played to as low as 68% capacity \u2014 not what you want from a known entity.<\/p>\n That\u2019s much better, however, than Miss USA Tara Conner, who has the unique distinction of selling $0 of tickets.<\/p>\n In 2007, the Weisslers were secretly rehearsing Conner<\/a> as Roxie in a Chelsea studio. <\/p>\n Like some of her predecessors, Conner was embroiled in a scandal. Three months after being crowned in 2006, she was caught drinking underage and snorting cocaine in a New York nightclub. To avoid losing her title, pageant owner <\/strong>Donald Trump sent her to rehab.<\/p>\n And then, straight to dance class! <\/p>\n Tara Conner never went on as Roxie, despite rehearsing in secret. ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve been putting her through her paces to see if she\u2019s up to it,\u201d a source said at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cAssuming both sides are comfortable, then this will be a win-win for all parties,\u201d Barry told The Post after the news leaked. \u201cWe look forward to making a positive announcement about her joining the \u2018Chicago\u2019 family.\u201d<\/p>\n They made no announcement. Conner was let go two weeks later<\/a>.<\/p>\n Perhaps nobody has seen a sharper career turnaround after dancing the \u201cHot Honey Rag,\u201d though, than \u201cBaywatch\u201d actress and Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson.<\/p>\n At 54, she began her two-month run as Roxie in April 2022, setting the media ablaze when Broadway was still limping along post-COVID.\u00a0<\/p>\n