THE OFFICE's Melora Hardin to Make Broadway Debut in CHICAGO Dec. 29

As reported earlier today by The Associated Press, Melora Hardin, star of the hit NBC comedy "The Office," will make her Broadway stage debut this winter as fame-hungry murderess Roxie Hart in the Tony Award-winning smash hit musical CHICAGO. Hardin will play a seven-week limited engagement beginning Monday, December 29, 2008 at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre (219 W. 49th St.).

Best known to television audiences for her role as Jan Levenson, Steve Carell's rigid former-boss and love interest on NBC's "The Office," Melora Hardin's impressive career spans a variety of mediums, including numerous television series, several films, two CDs, live concerts... and now Broadway.

"I'm thrilled. I'm so excited," Hardin told The Associated Press. "I have been dancing all my life, since I was five. In a way, I was made for musicals. But I have been working so much in film and television that I never really had a chance to do them."

In addition to her television work on "The Office," Hardin is also known for portraying Tony Shaloub's dead wife in the hit USA Network series "Monk." On the big screen, she will next star in the film Seventeen Again, opposite Zac Efron, which is slated for theatrical release in April 2009.

She also recently wrapped filming in Nashville as the love interest to Billy Ray Cyrus in the highly anticipated big-screen feature Hannah Montana: The Movie, which also hits theaters this April.

On stage, Hardin most recently played Fantine in the acclaimed Hollywood Bowl production of "Les Misérables in Concert" last August, directed by Richard Jay-Alexander.

Hardin will appear in CHICAGO through Thursday, February 12, 2009.