Cuba Gooding Jr. is set to return to Broadway later this year, joining the cast of the Tony Award-winning musical “Chicago.”
He will once again star as the smooth-talking lawyer Billy Flynn starting Oct. 6 through Nov. 18 at Broadway’s Ambassador Theatre. Gooding played the part in his West End debut earlier this year in the play’s London production.
In 2013, the actor made his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-nominated production of “The Trip to Bountiful” alongside Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams.
His other film and TV credits include “Boyz n the Hood” (1991), “Jerry Maguire” (1996), for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, “Pearl Harbor” (2001), “American Gangster” (2007), “The Butler” (2013) and “Selma” (2014). Most recently, he portrayed O.J. Simpson in the FX true crime drama series “The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”
Broadway’s “Chicago” currently stars Michelle DeJean as Roxie Hart, Terra C. MacLeod as Velma Kelly, John O’Hurley as Billy Flynn, Evan Harrington as Amos Hart, Cady Huffman as Matron “Mama” Morton and R. Lowe as Mary Sunshine.
Walter Bobbie is directing the now longest-running American musical in Broadway history, which is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler. It has won six 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Musical Cat Recording.
The famed story follows Roxie Hart, a nightclub dancer who murders her lover after he threatens to leave her. By hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer, she manages to turn her crime into a series of sensational headlines.