INTERVIEW: Bianca Marroquín is ready to celebrate ¡Viva Broadway! as Velma in ‘Chicago’
Photo: Bianca Marroquín has starred on Broadway as Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart in Chicago. She dances alongside Ryan Worsing and Michael Cusumano. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Daniel / Provided by BBB with permission.
Bianca Marroquín has had quite the journey with the musical Chicago, which continues its historic run at the Ambassadors Theatre on Broadway. The performer, who is originally from Monterrey, Mexico, first joined the production as Roxie Hart in Mexico City. That first step into this franchise was 20 years ago this month, and in the intervening years she has appeared on Broadway and in a national tour as Roxie, the murderous newcomer to the Cook County Jail.
She spent years as this beloved character, singing such hit tunes as “Funny Honey,” “Roxie” and “Me and My Baby.” Marroquín’s skills allowed her to play the role in Spanish and English, but she wanted even more of a challenge and decided to throw her bowler hat in the ring for the other iconic part in the show: Velma Kelly.
Today, she’s back on Broadway in the role of Velma, welcoming audiences back to the theater district with her unique take on “All That Jazz,” “I Know a Girl” and “I Can’t Do It Alone.” What will surely be a full-circle moment for the actor is the special performance scheduled for Monday, Oct. 18 when Chicago will be performed on Broadway in both Spanish and English as part of ¡Viva Broadway! Night. The theater initiative is meant to celebrate actors, staffers and audiences members from the Latinx community. Joining Marroquín on stage are other Latin leads, Ana Villafañe as Roxie and Paulo Szot as lawyer Billy Flynn.
It has been quite the journey for Marroquín. Here’s how it all began.
“So Chicago went to Mexico to start a Spanish-speaking production, and the whole American creative team came down,” Marroquín said in a recent phone interview. “They’re the ones who found me, picked me, taught me the show. We opened, they left, and six months later, they called for me and asked if I could come to Broadway and do it, of course, in English because in Mexico we were doing it in Spanish. And so six months later, I did my Broadway debut, and that was June 18, 2002. And from then on, I did a quick little month with them, went back to my Mexico production, and then a couple months later the Mexico production closed. Then the movie came out, and it was so successful that they decided to kick off a third national tour in 2003. And then they called me again to come and be Roxie for the national tour. I toured for two consecutive years nonstop, and then after that, the rest is history. Throughout the years, I’ve been in and out, in and out, maybe one or two contracts every year or more. Some contracts have been for two years, others for a year and a half, others for six months. I’ll leave, I’ll do another show, another project, and I’m very lucky to have this long relationship with the longest American-running musical on Broadway.”
In the show, both Roxie and Velma find themselves in the county jail awaiting trial for murdering men in their lives. They hire the razzle-dazzle attorney Billy Flynn to get them out of these dire circumstances, and they are willing to use anything (or anyone) to prove their — ahem — innocence. Approximately eight years ago the producers of Chicago were looking for some new Velmas. At the time, Marroquín was performing as Roxie, and she was in the middle of her contract. She was eventually approached by the team and asked to audition for Velma.
“I remember I went, and I sat in the waiting room with all these gorgeous ladies,” she said. “My turn came, I walked in the room, I did my audition. Everybody was in the room — producers, director, everybody was there. A couple months later they offered it to me, but I was in Mexico by then starring in a soap opera. I was contracted. I couldn’t leave. The next time they offered it a couple years later I was again in Mexico City doing Mary Poppins. I was doing Mary down there.”
The third time has proved to be the charm for Marroquín. During the pandemic, the producers called again and asked whether she would want to reopen the Broadway show after it was closed for 18 months during the COVID-19 crisis. This was a big ask, but Marroquín was up for the challenge.
“Oh my God, it’s finally happening,” Marroquín said. “My husband and I were upstate in the country, and we were there for the whole 18 months. So it was a very different life. We all had to find a way to survive emotionally and put our energy and focus into something else. Of course it was like, oh my God, shot out of a canon, straight into Velma rehearsals, and Velma is very different than Roxie.”
The first performance back was a first for many people. In September, the audience members were gathered together, vaccine cards handy and masks on their faces, waiting to enjoy the bounty of Broadway once again. Behind the scenes, Marroquín was prepared to take on this new role in a musical she had come to know and love for two decades. There was a lot going on in her mind that night.
At the start of the show, when “All That Jazz” begins, the character of Velma is backstage, ready to ascend an elevator and appear amongst the musicians in the on-stage band section. Marroquín remembers that moment vividly.
“The first thing on my mind was gratitude, gratitude, gratitude,” she said. “I’m hearing the audience screaming and yelling, and I’m hearing our director Walter Bobbie’s speech welcoming the audience and talking about [the late choreographer] Ann Reinking. Imagine all of us crying right before the performance. I was trying to get it together because I’m supposed to come out of there with confidence, the command that Velma brings on the stage, and you can hear the music swelling up announcing her entrance. I’m getting all emotional now. It was very hard for me to keep it together so I wouldn’t come out of that elevator crying. I really just [needed to] think about being Velma and not being Bianca in the moment because I was overwhelmed by being so grateful and so thankful that I had a job to begin with. I knew that they could have called other people coming back from the pandemic. We had a lot of colleagues and friends that were still awaiting their opportunity to come back to the stage. Yet here I was, one of those fortunate people and doing a new role, a new challenge that the universe was offering me. I was feeling very proud of myself for having gotten to this point. The whole month of rehearsals was a little painful and challenging, but that moment with the audience, we had arrived. You can only imagine. It took a lot for me to come out there and not cry.”
And now the full-circle moment for Marroquín. She began her journey in Chicago singing in Spanish in Mexico City 20 years ago, and Monday night she will sing in both English and Spanish on a Broadway stage. ¡Viva Broadway! promises to be special for everyone in the house, but particularly for Marroquín.
“How cool is that that Chicago agreed to dedicate an entire show, an entire night for ¡Viva Broadway!,” she said. “They got a girl from Mexico and brought her to this stage and kept me and kept loyal to me. … When I did In the Heights I remember the Broadway League contacted me that they were creating an extension called ¡Viva Broadway! to call upon all the Latinos and let them know that Broadway was for them, too, in a way to lure them to Broadway and get them interested in Broadway and then shine a light on all the Latinos. We’ve been there all along, but people didn’t know. See, your people are here, too. They are representing you. So in a sense, I’ve been an ambassador for a long time. … We’ve come a long way, and it makes me feel very proud. It’s going to be a great night.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Chicago’s ¡Viva Broadway! Night, featuring Bianca Marroquín, will be Monday, Oct. 18. Click here for more information and tickets.
