Video: Alyssa Milano Is CHICAGO's New Roxie

Hi, I'm Melissa Milano, and I'm here talking to Broadway World about my Broadway debut in Chicago

I will be playing Roxy Heart. Now, you're about to make your Broadway debut as Roxy Heart

How excited are you? I mean, beyond. I don't even think I could use the word excited for it

It's like I'm like a combination of thrilled and excited and also like nervous and

and also nauseous and like it's just like a bunch of emotions going on at once

All the good things before you make your debut. All the things for sure. I feel like I'm emotionally right where I'm supposed to be

Well, it's a lot to learn. Roxy is an iconic role in this iconic show

It's a lot. And there's a lot of different elements and they're all firing at once

Plus, she's kind of like she would get a gold medal in the emotional Olympics

Right? So she's up and down throughout the entire show. So I feel like, you know, I'm appropriately terrified

So what made you say yes now? Like, now I'm going to go to Broadway. And what kind of conversations did the family have of letting you say, yes, mama, go to Broadway

Well, funny you should ask, because my daughter, who is 10, she does musical theater

in our little local community theater. And they put on these beautiful productions

and she's done six plays. And just seeing her fearlessness has kind of given me the power and the strength

to like even consider coming back to Broadway or coming back to theater

And so she was really influential in any of it. But the audition, you know, opportunity came up

And I was like, sure, I'll go whatever. If I don't get it, I don't get it

Like, well, no big deal. But of course, once I started the auditioning, process, which was a good, I think it was three days, three hours session of dance

and then two hours of singing and then like a scene work

I, of course, wanted it so bad. I was like, if I don't get this, I'm going to be really bummed

And we were all in Cooperstown for my son's baseball tournament, and he's 13

And my daughter came over to me and I guess they had just my husband had just gotten the phone call And she said Mama you going to be on Broadway And I started crying

Because it was a while before we heard anything. So I was like, oh, this is probably not going to work out

And then, you know, then the process of, like, deciding whether or not I could do

not that I could do it physically, but that I could do it emotionally and leave the family

And we sat down at the kitchen table, the whole. family, my parents, you know, the brother, all the kids, everybody. And my daughter, I was like

I don't know if I could do this. I don't know if I could leave my family. I don't know, like

what if I get there and I'm just, you know, paralyzed in emotion. And my daughter looked at me

dead, dead pen. She goes, you would be an idiot not to do this. I was like, I'm going to

Broadway. Guess what? When do we leave? Because I'm going to Broadway

Okay, what I love about this production of Chicago is every Roxy gets to bring their own little whatever they want to bring to it. Make it special. Make it yours. What is your Roxy going to be like

My Roxy is, again, very emotional, but also she is, I'm trying to straddle this line between her being a really empowered woman who's older than she ever intended to be

and also a very almost childlike quality to her enthusiasm. And so I'm, and that's very much who I am as a person

I've got, you know, this strong woman thing. And I'm able to, you know, like sit across the table from Ted Cruz and talk about gun violence prevention

But also I have this little, this little girl quality because I, I, I, I, I, I

They grew up in a different way than other little girls. So I think I'm constantly trying to relive a bit of my childhood

So, you know, and then all the other things that you would expect from Roxy, ambitious

But she's very much like, you know, very, you know, very much like that

But then very much like this. Learning Anne Ryan King's choreography with the Fosse style

I mean, you love Anne Ryan King, right? I obsessed with Anne Yes I think that there is no one who can touch what she was able to accomplish on Broadway And if I were emulating any Roxy or try because no one can touch her but she has been influential in my research

Let's just say that. And there are very few videos of her on YouTube

So it's been, you know, I go down the rabbit hole of all these different productions, like the Korean production and the, just looking

for little clips of Anne and Beebe but you know the choreography is not

made for someone five foot two with very short legs I mean her legs were everything

also she was classically trained you know and I don't know I did hip hop in my youth

you know so so it's been very challenging to try to just embody just even the posture

And I actually, little secret, I asked the brilliant wardrobe department to make me a corset so that I can

now I can't really sing in the corset, but I have been rehearsing in it

dance rehearsing in it, so that I can emulate that. sort of posture, but arms, a lot of arms. Fossy hands. Fossy hands, but also Anne had this

like, movement about her that was so... You've got it. Yeah, so Fossie. Yeah, I have it from the

if we were doing a film version of Fossie dancing, I'd be great. But, no, like, I'm just

trying to embody as much of her as possible, you know, while still being in my own body, because

guess what? I have a lot to do, so I have to be in my own body. It'd be different if Roxy had one number

and she could go out there and completely be Fosse-esque, but there is, she has to be grounded

just for the endurance of the performances. Then they're singing the beautiful candor and ebb

score. What's up and like learning? I mean... Have a favorite already

My favorites change depending on what week it is This week it funny honey only because I conquered the ladder Whatever with that ladder

It's a great moment. It's a great moment. And, you know, I think it's amazing that it has stayed the same for 30 years

They have not changed the rung. I was like, you can at least change it from round rungs to flat rungs

Even that would just make it safer. But yeah, so, but in the last, I would say, the last five days, I have conquered it

which is good because I go on in 12 days. But yeah, I'm starting to feel very confident on it

Because it's not just getting up there. It's singing and dancing on a ladder with round rungs and heels

Yeah, but I've watched your Instagrams and you look fabulous on that ladder. Thank you

So what are you looking forward to the most? about that first performance on stage in Chicago

I think the camaraderie and to have the rest of the cast just to be with

And I think that that's something that is missing in the film industry nowadays and TV even

I think that there is an element of when you do your take, when you do your close-up, when you do your scene

you go into your trailer, you're not really hanging out with everyone

And I think this, I mean, even just from day one has felt so connected with everyone

And so, I mean, you've been to the ambassador. You know, everyone hangs out on the steps

And I'm just really looking forward to being there. And I thank God that it is that way, because if I felt like I was doing this in a vacuum or my own little silo

I don't, I think I would be a lot more nervous. but I know that we're all in it together

And I think that's also the beauty of the ever-changing cast. Even just of the Amos and the Velmas and the Billie Flynn's

it sort of equals out the playing field. So that I don't feel like, oh, well, everyone's, you know, in their own groove

And here I am, I'm coming in and jumping on the moving train. It's just everyone's jumping on the moving train

It's the best family to be a part of the Chicago family. It's such an institution, and I feel so honored just to be around these people