Chicago announces new princpal cast

The Tony Award winning Broadway musical Chicago is to welcome four new principal cast members in coming weeks.

First up, on 20 Jun 2011, Chris Sullivan will make his Chicago debut in the role of 'Amos Hart,' and will continue in the role through to 14 Aug 2011. Sullivan, who recently made his Broadway stage debut in 'Lombardi,' takes over for Raymond Bokhour, who plays his final performance as Amos Hart on 19 Jun 2011.

Tony Award-nominee Christopher Sieber will return to the role of 'Billy Flynn' on 23 Jun 2011, starring in the role through to 28 Aug 2011. He assumes the role from Brent Barrett who plays his final performance as 'Billy Flynn' on 19 Jun 2011.

Sieber was previously set to play the role of 'Billy Flynn' for a limited engagement from 8 to 25 Mar 2011, before he stepped in to play 'Georges' opposite Harvey Fierstein in the Tony Award-winning revival of 'La Cage aux Folles,' after Jeffrey Tambor abrubtly left the production on 24 Feb 2011.

On the 24 Jun 2011 two-time Tony Award nominee Charlotte d'Amboise (Jerome Robbins' Broadway, A Chorus Line) returns to the role of 'Roxie Hart,' starring in the role through to 4 Sep 2011. For her portrayal of this role in previous national tours of Chicago, d'Amboise earned the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, L.A. Ovation Award and a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award. d'Amboise takes over for Christie Brinkley, who plays her final performance on 19 Jun 2011.

As previously announced, Brinkley is set to reprise her performance as 'Roxie Hart' in the West End production of Chicago this summer, with a four-week engagement at London's Cambridge Theatre, from 11 Jul - 6 Aug 2011.

Finally, on 6 Jul 2011, the Chicago company will welcome Nikka Graff Lanzarone as she makes her debut in the role of merry murderess 'Velma Kelly,' starring in the role through to 7 Aug 2011. Lanzarone, who last appeared on Broadway in Lincoln Center Theater's production of 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,' takes over for current star Amra-Faye Wright. Wright concludes her Broadway engagement as 'Velma Kelly' on 3 Jul 2011 prior to joining Christie Brinkley in the West End production beginning 11 Jul 2011.

Chicago currently stars Amra Faye Wright (Velma Kelly), Christie Brinkley (Roxie), Brent Barrett (Billy Flynn), Roz Ryan (Mama Morton), Raymond Bokhour (Amos Hart) and R. Lowe (Mary Sunshine).

Now celebrating fourteen years on the Great White Way, Chicago is the second longest-running production currently playing on Broadway, as well as Broadway's longest-running musical revival.

The show has been playing on Broadway since 14 Nov 1996, it moved to the Ambassador Theatre on the 29 Jan 2003, where it is now booking through to 18 Dec 2011.

Chicago follows not your usual housewife, Roxie Hart, who gains dubious notoriety when she kills her boyfriend, invents her defence and manipulates everyone from her trustworthy husband to the fickle media and the unsuspecting public. The show features the well known songs, 'All That Jazz,' 'Razzle Dazzle' and 'Mr. Cellophane'.

Chicago has music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb, Book by Bob Fosse & Fred Ebb.

The musical is directed by Walter Bobbie, with choreography by Ann Reinking, scene design by John Lee Beatty, costumes by William Ivey Long, lighting by Ken Billington and sound by Scott Lehrer.

Chicago is the winner of six 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Recording. It is the eighth longest-running production in Broadway history, as well as Broadway's longest-running musical revival.