Pasquale Aleardi and NaTasha Yvette Williams to Join Cast of Broadway's CHICAGO

On Monday, December 1, the company of Broadway's Tony Award-winning, record- breaking musical Chicago welcomes two new leading players to the cellblock: German film and television star Pasquale Aleardi as Billy Flynn and Broadway favorite NaTasha Yvette Williams as Matron "Mama" Morton.

Pasquale Aleardi was born in Zurich, Switzerland and resides in Berlin. With more than 70 television, film and theater credits in Germany and internationally, his career spans a multitude of entertainment genres and styles.

His notable acting credits include Resident Evil (2002, dir. Paul W.S. Anderson), the lead in the Swiss feature Jazz (1993, dir. Daniel Helfer), the German thriller At Night in the Park (2002, dir. Uwe Janson) and The Fateful Years (dir. Miguel Alexandre) at the 2011 Filmfestival Monte Carlo (Best Actor nomination).

As a musician, he released the album Retrologie with his band Pasquale Aleardi & The Big Gee in 2010.

Aleardi will play a limited week-long engagement with the Broadway company of Chicago through Sunday, December 7, after which he'll return to Germany to star as Billy Flynn in the new production of Chicago at the Stage Palladium Theatre in Stuttgart this January.

On Broadway, Aleardi takes over for two-time Tony nominee Christopher Fitzgerald, who plays his final performance as Billy Flynn on Sunday, November 30.

NaTasha Yvette Williams was last seen onstage as Queenie in the New York Philharmonic's acclaimed production of Showboat.

Her Broadway credits include A Night with Janis Joplin, The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and as Sofia in The Color Purple.

Her featured vocalist and concert credits include performances at Carnegie Hall (Irving Berlin), Avery Fisher Hall (Ragtime), Indianapolis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Naples Philharmonic and Ottawa Symphony, just to name a few.

In the role of Matron "Mama" Morton, Williams takes over for Carmen Ruby Floyd, who plays her final performance on Sunday, November 30.

CHICAGO also stars Amy Spanger as Roxie Hart, Amra-Faye Wright as Velma Kelly, Raymond Bokhour as Amos Hart and R. Lowe and 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 longest-running American musical in Broadway history -- and it shows no sign of ever slowing down!
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.

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.

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 and sound design by Scott Lehrer.

Visit www.ChicagoTheMusical.com for more information.