![\"Ellie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PTB-L-POTEMPA-COL-0507-02.jpg\")
Ellie Roddy has returned to her lead role of musical murderess cellblock rival Roxie Hart in the national Broadway tour of \u201cChicago the Musical,\u201d playing in Chicago until May 10, 2026. (Jeremy Daniel\/provided)<\/p>\nDuring the 20-plus years I\u2019ve been writing about \u201cChicago the Musical,\u201d I\u2019ve always known there was something special about this Broadway musical \u201cChicago\u201d for actors, singers, dancers as well as audiences.<\/p>\n
Valparaiso\u2019s Drew Nellessen is a talented and smiling living example.<\/p>\n
It was the very first Broadway show he ever saw.<\/p>\n
Nellessen, a 2003 graduate of Valparaiso High School and a May 2007 graduate of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, spent 18 years in the \u201cChicago\u201d spotlight, earning ovations and curtain bows with his castmates for that step-by-step, famed Bob Fosse choreography feat, including national tour stops through the Windy City in 2014 and 2009.<\/p>\n
Nellessen rates as a \u201ctriple threat,\u201d a requirement for \u201cChicago\u201d casting, with his ability to dance, sing and act. Over the years, he\u2019s been cast as a newspaper reporter, a court bailiff, and a dizzy jury member, among other roles.<\/p>\n
Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age and inspired by the true crime of passion news events that screamed from Windy City newspaper headlines, the musical is based on the 1926 play of the same name by Maurine Dallas Watkins, a journalist covering the city\u2019s courthouse beat.<\/p>\n
Ellie Roddy has returned to her lead role of musical murderess cellblock rival Roxie Hart in the national Broadway tour of \u201cChicago the Musical,\u201d playing in Chicago until May 10, 2026. (Jeremy Daniel\/provided)<\/p>\n
The original Broadway production opened in June 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre in New York and ran for 936 performances before closing in August 1977, with Fosse forming his legacy by directing and choreographing the original production.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the musical celebrated a 50th anniversary, and on Dec. 29, 2025, Nellessen announced he was leaving \u201cChicago\u201d for a new career chapter with his final performance on Feb. 1 at the Ambassador Theatre, where he had been part of the \u201csit-down\u201d Broadway run cast for the past eight years following his national tours with the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent my past 18 years on and off with \u2018Chicago,\u2019 including the past eight of them here on Broadway at the Ambassador,\u201d Nellessen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mixed emotions but time to see what life after \u2018Chicago\u2019 looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s time for auditions, some time off and still continuing his tradition of returning home to talk with students from his alma mater, especially a recent visit with soon-to-be graduates at Millikin University to provide his optimistic yet painfully honest advice: \u201cIt\u2019s one of the hardest jobs you\u2019ll ever have, with eight performances a week, just two vacation weeks a year, 12 sick days and four personal days. I\u2019ve been doing this show consistently for seven years, and it takes its toll on your body, your voice, your mental capacity, heart and spirit. It\u2019s not easy, but that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t beautiful and a goal worth achieving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Broadway in Chicago is hosting a quick one-week return of \u201cChicago\u201d through Mother\u2019s Day, Sunday, May 10, at the Auditorium Theater, 50 East Ida B. Wells Drive, spotlighting the legendary book by Fred Ebb and Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, all reasons why \u201cChicago\u201d ranks as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history (and it\u2019s continuing its Broadway run too in New York at the Ambassador.)<\/p>\n
The blockbuster 2002 feature film treatment starred Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Queen Latifah and Christine Baranski.<\/p>\n
![\"Originally](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PTB-L-POTEMPA-COL-0507-01.jpg\")
Originally from Cicero, Illinois, Max Cervantes stars as slick \u201crazzle dazzle\u201d lawyer Billy Flynn in the national Broadway tour of \u201cChicago the Musical,\u201d playing in Chicago until May 10, 2026. (Jeremy Daniel\/provided)<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s run is second to the finale city before this national tour closes in Philadelphia on May 18. The all-star top tier cast includes another Chicagoland favorite Max Cervantes, who is originally from Cicero, as slick lawyer Billy Flynn opposite Ellie Roddy in her return to the cellblock as Roxie Hart and Claire Marshall making her debut as Velma Kelly and joining Marc Christopher as Amos Hart, Illeana \u201cIlly\u201d Kirven returning as Matron \u201cMama\u201d Morton and J. Clanton as \u201csob sister\u201d newspaper reporter Mary Sunshine.<\/p>\n
Tickets start at $40 at www.BroadwayinChicago.com<\/a>, www.ChicagoOnTour.com<\/a>, or call 312-341-2300.<\/p>\n Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and weekly radio host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at\u00a0philpotempa@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the 20-plus years I\u2019ve been writing about \u201cChicago the Musical,\u201d I\u2019ve always known there was something special…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":777639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,56951,33131,30214,56952,38106,56953,5386,1818,2862,4010,728,56954,56955,56956,56957,56950,56958],"class_list":{"0":"post-777638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-crown-point","10":"tag-east-chicago","11":"tag-gary","12":"tag-griffith","13":"tag-hammond","14":"tag-highland","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-illinois","17":"tag-indiana","18":"tag-lake-county","19":"tag-local-news","20":"tag-merrillville","21":"tag-munster","22":"tag-portage","23":"tag-porter-county","24":"tag-post-tribune","25":"tag-valparaiso"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116528580198327020","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}