Dylis Croman as Roxie Hart in Chicago the Musical.

ONSTAGE
What: Chicago the Musical
When: Monday to Dec. 23
Where: The Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St.
Tickets: $89 and $99
For more information, visit: rmts.bc.ca

Dylis Croman was 14 years old when she met two Broadway legends who helped define her current role as Roxie Hart in Chicago the Musical.

Gwen Verdon, the original Roxie on Broadway in 1975, and Ann Reinking, who played Roxie in the 1996 revival, were both mentors at a summer musical-theatre program she attended.

“It was there that I was first introduced to the Fosse style and I couldn’t get enough of it,” said Croman, 40. Verdon taught her Bob Fosse’s signature choreography for Cool Hand Luke, and Reinking became her friend and mentor.

“To later see Ann play Roxie with Bebe [Neuwirth as Velma] was an amazing thing. I was blown away,” said Croman. “I remember thinking even then that there’s something about that role that’s right for me, that playfulness. And it came full circle.”

The Texas native plays Roxie Hart in the touring company of Chicago, set to hit Victoria next week. She also intermittently performs in the Broadway show, which has been running for more than 21 years.

The show is based on a 1926 play by crime reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, whose columns about several Chicago women who killed their husbands made them famous.

It was Verdon who convinced her husband, Fosse, to make the play a musical, and with Fred Ebb and John Kander, they created an instant hit.

The show went on to become the second longest-running in Broadway history and the longest-running revival. A film version won an Academy Award for best picture.

“On the road, the audiences are really special. You can feel their excitement of us swooping into town,” said Croman, adding the Chicago “family” is a tight-knit group of triple threats — talented singer-dancer-actors. “But Broadway is a dream. So when I get that call, there’s no feeling like it.”

Croman said she has played almost every female part in the show except Velma, and that its broad appeal has attracted several celebrities to starring roles.

“One of the main things I’ve noticed on Broadway is there is more crossover from television,” she said. While New York’s famous musical-theatre strip has become more touristy over the years, the theatres remain somewhat sacred. “When you’re in the theatres, you still feel the history.”

Croman said that after a decade of performing in Chicago, she still finds new inspiration in the story and her character.

“It was written in the 1920s, but what it’s about is timeless,” she said. “The women are strong. They take care of themselves. Even if they don’t do the greatest things. And they band together.”

Croman says a little prayer before each show, asking to be open to whatever Roxie brings her that night.

“I like that she is strong and also vulnerable,” she said. “We are all sexy, but not vulgar. It’s a classy show. The balance of us walking around in fishnets is that you see these women are real. They go through stuff.”

Croman said she’s never been to Victoria but that she, and the rest of the cast, are excited to spend a week here. The shows will feature 10 local musicians, several from the Victoria Symphony, in the orchestra.

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Chicago star mentored by legendary Roxies