Record-setting Roz Ryan brings “Chicago” to Birmingham
Roz Ryan has appeared in "Chicago" more than any other leading lady. (contributed photo)
There’s a good chance that actress Roz Ryan knows the musical “Chicago” better than anyone on the planet.
More than three years ago, in October 2012, she logged her 224th week playing Matron “Mama” Morton in the show by John Kander and Fred Ebb, giving her the record of most performances by a leading actress in a musical that’s filled with leading actresses.
And she’s still going strong in the role, right now in the national tour that Broadway in Birmingham is bringing to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Concert Hall for four performances this weekend.
“I call it my good government job now,” Ryan says. “It’s got good benefits and the paychecks don’t bounce.”
Ryan’s relationship with “Chicago,” the musical about accused murderesses Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, goes back to 1998, when she auditioned for the role of Mama Morton for the national tour. Ryan, who had starred in the long-running sitcom “Amen” as well as Broadway’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Dreamgirls,” didn’t get the job.
“About six months later, I got a call from the director, Walter Bobbie, who said the reason I didn’t get it was he was saving me for Broadway,” Ryan says.
In January 1999, she made her debut in the Broadway company as “Mama” Morton, singing “When You’re Good to Mama” as matron of the “Chicago” jail.
“I did it and then went to Vegas and then went back to Broadway and then went home to California, and they called again,” Ryan recalls. “I thought maybe then that this could become a regular thing.”
Every year since, she has appeared in some company of “Chicago,” either on Broadway or on the road.
“I’ll usually do three or four months a year,” says Ryan, who has also done extensive voiceover work that started with the movie “Hercules.” “I chose this tour because of the venues. When they go overseas, they always call me because they know I love to go.”
This tour of “Chicago” played the Philippines, Japan and Korea before the North American leg started.
And though she’s played “Mama” upwards of 3,000 times, she doesn’t tire of it.
“The casts change, and each time that happens, it keeps it’s fresh,” Ryan says. “And even if the cast doesn’t change, the audience changes, and the response you get from the audience can determine the excitement. … And then, when you have Kander and Ebb’s music and Walter Bobbie’s direction and Anne Reinking’s choreography, you can’t get tired of that. It’s like food for the ears.”
