Suzanne ShawSuzanne Shaw, Dancing On Ice champion and former Hear’Say popstrel, joins the cast of Chicago on 2 June to play murderess Roxie Hart for six weeks only, until 12 July.
Shaw has previously been seen in the West End playing the Narrator in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 2005 and Janet in cult musical The Rocky Horror Show at the Playhouse in 2006. She had been due to star in the Barbican’s pantomime, Jack And The Beanstalk, over the Christmas season last year, but instead we saw her donning skates and sequins in ITV’s celebrity ice dancing competition Dancing On Ice, which she eventually won. Shaw first came into the public eye on another reality television show, Popstars, in 2001, which spawned the band Hear’Say. Together with her bandmates, Shaw had a number one single and album.
Kander and Ebb musical Chicago, which celebrated its 10th birthday in the West End in December last year, tells the story of cabaret singer Roxie Hart, who murders her lover and finds herself banged up in jail along with fellow murderess Velma Kelly. Both girls rely on sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn to get them acquitted at trial – and resurrect their careers in the process.
Chicago opened at the Adelphi in 1997, to Laurence Olivier Award-winning success, before transferring to the Cambridge in April 2006. The current cast includes Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as Roxie, Rachel McDowall as Velma and Terence Maynard as Billy. Paul Rider (Amos) and Claudia Shear (Mama Morton) also star. em>CB