Chicago : cast a new Velma

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Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 6:42pm

The Chicago thread about becoming the 2nd longest running show made me think: if you could realistically cast a new Velma, using an exciting broadway or off-broadway talent (stunt casting not desired or required) who has never played Velma. Who would you cast?

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 6:52pm

I would love Samantha Barks to come to Broadway in something. She played Velma in the Hollywood Bowl production last summer, and if she wanted to come to Broadway in it, I'd be the first to buy tickets.

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:17pm

^I agree, Samantha Barks would make a great Velma for Broadway.

Updated On: 8/15/14 at 07:17 PM

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:24pm

I wonder why they don't give Nikka Graff Lanzarone another shot at Velma.

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:26pm

How about Helene York?

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:37pm

Velma: Rachelle Rak, Rachel York, Charlotte D'Amboise (my favorite Roxie by far!).
Roxie: I kind of always wanted to see Kerry Butler. It does sound like an odd choice, but I can really picture her in the role!

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 7:39pm

Wow, Rachelle Rak would be a phenomenal Velma. Why hash't that happened yet??

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 8:07pm

Velma: Susan Egan, Jane Leeves, Rachelle Rak, Vanessa Williams
Roxie: Sierra Boggess, Emmy Rossum, Peta Murgatroyd, Kerry Butler

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 8:08pm

Rachelle would be AWESOME!

Who else? Weisslers (Hahahahahah)!are you listening ?

#10

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 8:45pm

Lesli Margherita would make a great Velma...

"The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world." - F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

#11

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 8:57pm

No, the Weisslers aren't listening. I must admit that Rachelle Rak would be awesome. But, she would be too wild for the producers' taste. Charlotte D'Amboise would never be Velma. She has been quoted as saying she wouldn't be interested. In any case, the current Velma will be at the Ambassador until January 2015 (groan).

"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

#12

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 9:17pm

Maybe the Weisslers will take Amrya to Manila and finish out her contract there.

#13

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 9:27pm

Patti Lapone fanatic

Oy. Ick.

Can we fantasize here ?

#14

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 9:32pm

Annaleigh Ashford as Roxy. Lena Hall as Vilma. It would be a Kinky reunion!

#15

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 10:58pm

I would to see Valarie Pettiford brought back to the Chicago family. She did do it in Vegas opposite Chita.

If not Valarie then here is my list

1. Brenda Braxton YES BRENDA!
2. Dionne Figgins ( currently at Motown but FIERCE)
3.Stephanie Pope
4.Samantha Barks (although it wouild be a different show she is YOUNG)
5.Tisha Campbell-Martin ( this girl BLOWS.....She was in Little Shop and School Daze)

The problem I have is that the current cast is getting a little stale for me... I wanna see some real WOMEN and MEN on the stage. Not BOYTS that are just all muscle and girls being sass. What about the Dana Moores, The Mary Ann Lamb The Denis Fayes....REAL WOMEN of a certain age. That is what Chicago is about after all....
4.

#16

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/15/14 at 10:58pm

#17

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 4:02pm

Bebe was in the early/mid 30's when she first played Velma, so a younger Velma doesn't bug me.
Picks that would get me back for a 4th trip;
Samantha Barks
Patina Miller (please if even for a short sumer stint!)
Lena Hall (she was in CATS, I'm sure she can handle the dancing)
Lisa O'Hare
Molly Tynes
ETA The amazing Jessica Keenan Wynn

"Grease," the fourth revival of the season, is the worst show in the history of theater and represents an unparalleled assault on Western civilization and its values. - Michael Reidel

Updated On: 8/16/14 at 04:02 PM

#18

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 4:26pm

Bring Pia Douwes back! The best Velma, in my opinion.

#19

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 4:46pm

Lena is VERY capible of the dancing. She started out as a dancer and joined a perfessional dance company very young.

#20

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 5:02pm

I know you said Velma but I would love to see Megan Hilty play Roxie.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

#21

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 6:44pm

I was hoping this thread was gonna be a petition to replace Amra. I'd sign.

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

#22

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 7:05pm

I was hoping that too.

#23

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/16/14 at 11:36pm

Leigh Zimmerman

#24

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/17/14 at 3:06am

I'm not sure what Vanessa Williams' dancing is like recently (not sure how much she danced in AFTER MIDNIGHT), but she'd be an ideal Velma in my book. My top choice for Velma is Karen Olivo though. Whatever happened to Megan Sikora? She was fantastic in CURTAINS and APPLAUSE at Encores!, and would make a great Velma. Rachelle Rak would be perfection, love her in the FOSSE video.
I'd love for the Weisslers to get a brand new cast to celebrate the upcoming milestone, just for a one night only sort of thing or a weekend Encores! style: Vanessa Williams or Karen Olivo for Velma, Jane Krakowski for Roxie, Victor Garber for Billy, Danny Burstein for Amos, and Tonya Pinkins or Mary Testa as Momma Morton. A boy can dream.

"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"

#25

Chicago : cast a new Velma

Posted: 8/17/14 at 4:58am

Chicago survives mostly on tourists and the low costs (including the cast).

Marroquin and Wright do it at a much lower rate than most would and know the show so well that at this point that it makes no sense to start again with anyone new. All those names that appear on this thread would do a few weeks but then it's back to the same.

It is too bad for Broadway fans, but at least the show did see a good mix of performers back in the day. The show survives more than it lives, and the material is good enough to keep it somehow enjoyable if not the amazing production it was 20 years ago.

Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE

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