VIDEO: New Billy Flynn, Football Great Eddie George, Comes To CHICAGO With Serious Acting Background

When football great and Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George makes his Broadway debut in Chicago, playing the role of Billy Flynn for seven weeks beginning on Tuesday, January 11, 2016, he'll be arriving as a serious professional who has been developing his acting skills in dramas like Matthew Lopez's THE WHIPPING MAN (Nashville Repertory Theatre), Suzan-Lori Parks' TOPDOG/UNDERDOG (Amun Ra Theatre) and even a pair of leading roles for the Nashville Shakespeare Festival.

In 2012 he essayed the title role in the festival's production of JULIUS CAESAR and two years later took on OTHELLO.

In an interview for ESPN, George talks about his preparation for the challenge of playing CHICAGO's slick leading man and singing on stage eight times a week.

Broadway favorites Bianca Marroquín (as Roxie Hart) and Terra C. MacLeod (as Velma Kelly) have returned to Broadway's Tony Award-winning, record-breaking hit musical Chicago, now playing at the Ambassador Theatre (219 W. 49th St., NYC).

CHICAGO also currently stars Jason Danieley as Billy Flynn, Raymond Bokhour as Amos Hart, actress and TV sensation NeNe Leakes (Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta") 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 and sound design by Scott Lehrer.

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.