Tony Award-winner Lillias White will stay with the Broadway company of Chicago for an additional few months. She will play the raunchy prison warden "Mama" Morton through September 10th, instead of her previously-announced departure date of April 23rd.
White stepped into Chicago on January 31st. She is joined by Charlotte D'Amboise as Roxie, Brenda Braxton as Velma, Obba Babatunde as Billy Flynn, and R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine. Kevin Chamberlin will join the cast on June 12th as Amos; Raymond Bokhour currently plays the role.
White won a Tony Award for her performance in The Life. She has previously appeared on Broadway in Once On This Island, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Carrie, Dreamgirls (both the original production and the 1987 revival) and Cats, among others. Other credits include Purlie at Encores! and the Actors' Fund benefit concerts of Dreamgirls, Funny Girl and Hair.Chicago, which opened at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on November 14th 1996, has reached a run of over 3,900
performances at the Ambassador Theatre (215 W. 49th St.); the show is the longest-running revival in Broadway history. Chicagoreceived
6 1997 Tonys (including Best Revival of a Musical) under the direction
of Walter Bobbie and the choreography of star Ann Reinking. The
revival, based
on Bobbie's stylistically stripped-down Encores! staging, featured
direction and choreography by Bob Fosse in its original 1975
production. Chicago features a score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse.