Cuba Gooding Jr is the first of the big-name casting for CHICAGO's West End return. The Jerry Maguire star will razzle-dazzle as lawyer Billy Flynn - who'll play his murderess clients Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly? Any bets on a few more Hollywood headline-grabbers...
Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr will make his British stage debut and his musical debut as smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn in the multi award-winning CHICAGO at the West End’s Phoenix Theatre this spring. Following a successful UK and international tour, and after a 5½-year absence from London, CHICAGO, the winner of six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and a Grammy, will begin performances at the Phoenix Theatre on Monday 26 March 2018.
Cuba Gooding Jr’s breakthrough role was as Tre Styles in 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). Later films included As Good as It Gets (1997), Men of Honor (2000) as Carl Brashear, Pearl Harbor (2001) as Doris Miller, American Gangster (2007), The Butler (2013), and Selma (2014), playing civil rights attorney Fred Gray. In 2016, he portrayed OJ Simpson in the FX drama series The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-series or a Movie. In 2013, he made his Broadway theatre debut alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams in the Tony Award-nominated production of The Trip to Bountiful.
Further casting for CHICAGO is to be announced.
CHICAGO originally ran in London for 15 years, making it the West End’s longest-running revival. It first opened at the Adelphi Theatre on 18 November 1997 to rave reviews and immediately became a sell-out hit. CHICAGO won the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Musical Production’ as well as the 1998 Critics Circle Drama Award for ‘Best Musical’. CHICAGO transferred from the Adelphi Theatre to the Cambridge Theatre in April 2006, where it ran for five years until 27 August 2011. The show then opened at the Garrick Theatre on 7 November 2011, where it ran until 1 September 2012.
Since it opened in New York in 1996, CHICAGO has played in 36 countries worldwide, and been performed in English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, French, Danish, Japanese and Korean. It has grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide and has played over 30,000 performances worldwide, with an estimated 31 million people around the world having seen CHICAGO.
CHICAGO continues to play on Broadway, where it recently celebrated its 21st birthday, and around the world in multiple languages. It is the world’s longest-running American musical.
CHICAGO, which is based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, has a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1996 Broadway revival of CHICAGO was choreographed by Ann Reinking in the style of Bob Fosse, directed by Walter Bobbie, and produced by Barry and Fran Weissler.
