Today the Stratford Festival welcomes audiences back to its iconic Festival Theatre with the first performance of the great Kander and Ebb musical Chicago.

This spectacular, all new production is directed and choreographed by Donna Feore, with Music Director Franklin Brasz, Set Designer Michael Gianfrancesco, Costume Designer Dana Osborne, Lighting Designer Michael Walton and Sound Designer Peter McBoyle.

“For our Festival’s unique thrust stage I have been given the rare opportunity to completely reimagine the production,” says Feore. “Chicago is a big dance show, and dance is not locked in time. We build on the foundations of masters past. Inspired by the music and the remarkable story, I am taking full advantage of the massive talents of the exceptional dancers, actors, singers and musicians of our Stratford company to create a new Chicago for us, for now.”

Set in the Roaring Twenties, Chicago tells the story of an aspiring chorus girl and a fading vaudeville star as they each face trial for murder and compete for the services of a shady lawyer.

With all-new knock-’em-dead dance numbers, this landmark production of Chicago – the first major new production outside of New York and London in more than 30 years – features Dan Chameroy as Billy Flynn, Chelsea Preston as Roxie Hart, Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Velma Kelly, Sandra Caldwell as Mama Morton and Steve Ross as Amos Hart, with Robert Markus, Eric Abel, Devin Alexander, Gabriel Antonacci, Robert Ball, Devon Michael Brown, Celeste Catena, Amanda De Freitas, Tiffany Deriveau, Henry Firmston, Bonnie Jordan, Lakota Knuckle, Heather Kosik, Bethany Kovarik, Amanda Lundgren, Gracie Mack, Jordan Mah, Chad McFadden, Kyla Musselman, Stephen Patterson, Philip Seguin, Jason Sermonia, Julius Sermonia and Breanna Willis.

The production was to begin on April 6, but as a result of the current Covid surge province-wide, positive cases occurred in the cast, leading to the cancellation of three preview performances.

To keep cancellations to an absolute minimum, the Festival has more actors serving as understudies, with most covering more than one role for additional flexibility. As we pass through this unprecedented Omicron wave, we are confident that cancellations will be rare.

Chicago has its gala opening night on June 3 and runs until October 30 in the Festival Theatre. Tickets are available at stratfordfestival.ca or by calling 1.800.567.1600.

This production is dedicated to the memory of former company member Victor A. Young.

The 2022 season also features Hamlet, The Miser, Little Women, Richard III, All’s Well That Ends Well, Death and the King’s Horseman, Every Little Nookie, Hamlet-911 and 1939. For more information, visit www.stratfordfestival.ca.