Mazz Murray Joins Martin Kemp in CHICAGO, With New Booking Period Announced
by Best of Theatre Staff on Tuesday 26 June 2018, 10:10 am in Cast Changes and Announcements
Mazz Murray will join the West End cast of CHICAGO at the Phoenix Theatre, playing the title role of Mama Morton from Monday 2 July. Also joining the cast on 2 July will be the previously announced Martin Kemp as Billy Flynn. They will join Sarah Soetaert, Josefina Gabrielle and Paul Rider as Roxie Hart, Velma Kelly and Amos Hart respectively.
Martin Kemp will be staying in the London production of CHICAGO until 2 September 2018, with Sarah Soetaert, Josefina Gabrielle, Mazz Murray and Paul Rider staying until 11 August 2018.
A new booking period opens today, Tuesday 26 June, with tickets available for performances from Monday 8 October to Saturday 5 January 2019.
Mazz Murray’s previous theatre credits include nine years as Killer Queen in We Will Rock You (Dominion Theatre), Tanya in Mamma Mia! (Novello Theatre), Mabel in Fame (Victoria Palace), Grandma Bertha in Pippin (Bridewell Theatre) and Dusty Springfield in A Girl Called Dusty (Duke of York’s Theatre). On television, she has appeared in EastEnders and Footballers’ Wives, and on film in John Boorman’s Hope & Glory and the soon-to-be-released Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. She has toured with Earth Wind & Fire and Billy Ocean as part of the band Woman the Band, and with Il Divo as a solo artist. Her debut solo album, Midnight Mazz, was released earlier this year.
The multi award-winning Kander & Ebb musical CHICAGO, winner of six Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards and a Grammy, returned to London’s West End on Monday 26 March, with a press night on Wednesday 11 April at the Phoenix Theatre in London.
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 32,500 performances worldwide, with an estimated 31 million people around the world having seen CHICAGO. CHICAGO continues to play on Broadway, where it celebrated its 21st birthday last year, 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.