Pamela Anderson is trading in her slow-motion run for jazz hands, signing on for an eight-week run as Roxie in the New York production of Chicago. The former Home Improvement and Baywatch star will make her Broadway debut on April 12th.
Roxie is Chicago‘s main protagonist — a murderer and aspiring vaudeville star willing to do anything to get what she desires. Anderson joins the long-running 1996 revival, which won six Tony Awards in 1997, including Best Musical Revival. In a statement (via Deadline), Anderson paid tribute to the show’s choreographer Bob Fosse, as well Roxie’s original actor Gwen Verdon and the star of the revival Ann Reinking. She wrote,
“I have always been a huge fan of Bob Fosse’s & Gwen Verdon’s work. Ann Reinking, too. Playing Roxie Hart is a dream fulfilled. Performing Fosse, you don’t have time to get in your head. You can’t dance, sing and think at the same time. There is a freedom, a unique joy in knowing it’s all about the work. Playing Roxie Hart is a sweet escape for me.”
Those lines about not thinking and “sweet escape” may be a reference to Hulu’s Pam and Tommy, a fictionalized retelling of history’s most infamous sex-tape theft. Anderson reportedly took issue with how she was portrayed, and has suggested that an upcoming untitled Netflix documentary will tell “the real story.”
Until then, you can catch Anderson at the Ambassador Theatre in New York from April 12th through June 5th. Tickets are available here.
