Theater News

Cuba Gooding Jr. Sets Return Date to Chicago on Broadway

Gooding will reprise his performance as the razzle-dazzling Billy Flynn.

Cuba Gooding Jr. will reprise his performance as Billy Flynn in the Broadway cast of Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre.
Cuba Gooding Jr. will reprise his performance as Billy Flynn in Chicago at Broadway's Ambassador Theatre.
(photo provided by Boneau/Bryan-Brown)

Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. will return to the Broadway cast of Chicago as smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn for five weeks only from January 7-February 10, 2019. He reprises his performance after playing the role on Broadway earlier this year from October 6-November 18 and originating the part in the musical's 2018 London production.

Gooding'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). His later films include As Good as It Gets (1997), Men of Honor (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), American Gangster (2007), The Butler (2013), and Selma (2014). In 2016, he portrayed O.J. Simpson in the FX 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 Limited Series or 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.

Directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Tony Award winner Ann Reinking, Chicago features a legendary book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb.

Set amid 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.

The Broadway cast of 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.

Featured In This Story