Cuba Gooding Jr. Will Return to CHICAGO on Broadway

The Tony Award-winning, record-breaking hit musical Chicago has announced that Academy Award winner and Emmy nominee Cuba Gooding Jr. will return to Broadway as the smooth-talking lawyer "Billy Flynn," beginning Monday, January 7, 2019 through Sunday, February 10, 2019 (five weeks only) at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre (219 W. 49th Street).

Cuba Gooding Jr. reprises his role as "Billy Flynn" after recently playing the role on Broadway from Oct. 6 - Nov. 18, 2018. He originated the part (in his West End stage debut) earlier this year in the 2018 London production of Chicago, currently playing at The Phoenix Theatre.

Cuba Gooding Jr. made his directorial debut and starred in the independent film Bayou Caviar (which he also co-wrote) in October 2018. Gooding Jr.'s breakthrough role was as Tre Styles in the feature film Boyz n the Hood (1991), followed by A Few Good Men (1992), before winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Jerry Maguire (1996). Later films included As Good as It Gets (1997), Men of Honor (2000) as Carl Brashear, Pearl Harbor (2001) as Doris Miller, American Gangster (2007), The Butler (2013) and Selma (2014), playing civil rights attorney Fred Gray. In 2016, he portrayed O.J. Simpson in the F/X drama series "The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story," for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-series or a Movie. In 2013, he made his Broadway debut alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in the Tony Award-nominated production of The Trip to Bountiful.

Chicago currently stars Charlotte d'Amboise as Roxie Hart, Amra-Faye Wright as Velma Kelly, Tom Hewitt as Billy Flynn, Evan Harrington as Amos Hart, Raena White as Matron "Mama" Morton and R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.

With a legendary book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago is now the #1 longest-running American musical in Broadway history.

Produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, Chicago is the winner of six 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Recording.

Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Tony Award winner Ann Reinking, Chicago features set design by John Lee Beatty, costume design by Tony Award winner William Ivey Long, lighting design by Tony Award winner Ken Billington, sound design by Scott Lehrer and casting by Stewart/Whitley.

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 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.