Yahoo News Angelica Ross to Make Broadway Debut in ‘Chicago’
Pose star Angelica Ross is set to make her Broadway debut in Chicago this September, her arrival marking a historic moment for both the musical and the industry.
Ross will star as Roxie Hart, the aspiring actress turned murderess, in Broadway’s second longest-running musical. She is the first openly trans actress in the role, and among one of the first known trans actresses to star in a leading role in a Broadway musical.
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The activist, executive producer, president of Miss Ross, Inc. and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises will begin her run at the Ambassador Theater on Sept. 12, with the American Horror Story star playing an eight-week limited engagement through Nov. 6. Earlier this year, Pamela Anderson portrayed the same character for her own limited run during the spring.
In 2018, Ru Paul’s Drag Race star Peppermint became the first known, openly trans woman to originate a principal role on Broadway, starring as the non-binary character Pythio in the Gwyneth Paltrow-produced Go-Go’s jukebox musical comedy Head Over Heels. This past June, A Strange Loop star L Morgan Lee made history as the first known, openly transgender person to be nominated in any acting category by the Tony Awards, with the 75-year-old awarding body honoring her in the featured actress in a musical category.
Other principal and featured Broadway actors who have identified as trans and left their mark on the industry in the last several years include Wicked and The Nap‘s Alexandra Billings, Becca Blackwell in the play Is This A Room, as well as Straight White Men‘s Kate Bornstein and Ty Defoe.
Chicago is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, with direction by Walter Bobbie and choreography by Ann Reinking. John Lee Beatty helms set design; costumes design is by William Ivey Long; lighting design is led by Ken Billington; with sound design by Scott Lehrer and casting by Stewart/Whitley.
