Reece Weaver Takes Her First Broadway Bow as “Chicago”’s Merry Murderess Roxie Hart: ‘I Have Never Cussed More in My Life’

The ‘America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ star celebrated her Sept. 7 debut with husband Will Allman, her parents and former DCC teammates by her side

NEED TO KNOW

• Reece Weaver made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Monday, Sept. 7, taking her first bow at the Ambassador Theatre
• The America’s Sweethearts star celebrated the milestone backstage with husband Will Allman, her parents and former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Kelly Villares and Charly Barby
• Weaver joked that she has “never cussed more” while preparing to play Roxie, though there was one phrase her Christian faith kept her from saying

Reece Weaver has officially traded the Dallas Cowboys sidelines for Broadway’s cell block.

The former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Monday, Sept. 7, taking her first bow at New York City’s Ambassador Theatre after stepping into one of musical theater’s most famous roles.

Her performance also included a sweet nod to America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, the Netflix reality show that made Weaver a household name. During the infamous “Roxie” monologue, Weaver introduced herself as “Roxie Hart, America’s Sweetheart” — an Easter Egg that had the audience cheering.

Those cheers continued throughout the electric evening.

Photos from the milestone night show Weaver, 25, beaming alongside her new castmates during the curtain call before celebrating backstage with husband Will Allman, her parents and former America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders costars Kelly Villares and Charly Barby.

And even those who couldn’t make it to New York made sure Weaver felt the love.

Earlier Monday, Villares and Barby joined fellow DCC alum Ava Lahey for a special video celebrating their former teammate’s opening night. Dressed in their Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders uniforms, the trio performed a routine to “Roxie,” the showstopping number Weaver now performs eight times a week on Broadway.

“OUR ROXIE 💌🌹 @reece_christinee, we’re sending you all our love from Dallas on your opening night!” they captioned the clip. “Now go rock Chicago! We ❤️ YOU!!!”

Weaver’s debut comes just months after she announced her retirement from DCC following three seasons with the squad, a decision chronicled in the season 3 finale of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts.

But becoming Roxie has required the famously bubbly, deeply religious former cheerleader to embrace a decidedly different character: an adulterous aspiring vaudeville star who kills her lover and schemes her way toward celebrity.

“I have never cussed more in my life than these past four weeks,” Weaver joked in an interview with The New York Times published the day of her Broadway debut.

There was, however, one line she wasn’t willing to cross. “That’s the one thing I made clear,” she told the outlet. “There’s a few times where Roxie said ‘G.D.,’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t say that.’”

The role has challenged Weaver in other ways, too. Though she has danced since age 3, attended performing arts schools and earned a dance degree from the University of Alabama, she told the Times she had to recalibrate some of the skills she spent three seasons perfecting as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

On the football field, Weaver explained, routines like DCC’s signature “Thunderstruck” require dancers to cover enormous amounts of ground. On Broadway, she had to learn to make those movements smaller — while simultaneously finding an entirely new side of her voice.

“I’m learning how to vocally project,” she said. “I’m really having to learn to get my voice in, like, a deeper chest voice and not, like, so high like I normally talk.”

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Weaver was first approached about auditioning for Chicago while promoting America’s Sweethearts in June, shortly after leaving DCC. She and Allman had just purchased a home in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where they met as students at the University of Alabama, when Broadway suddenly came calling.

The opportunity fulfilled a dream Weaver had been working toward long before viewers met her on America’s Sweethearts.

“I’ve always wanted to perform on the Broadway stage,” she told CBS Mornings while announcing her casting in August. “I was born and raised as a dancer.”

Weaver will play Roxie through Oct. 18, starring opposite Lissa deGuzman as Velma Kelly, Max von Essen as Billy Flynn, NaTasha Yvette Williams as Matron “Mama” Morton, Red Concepción as Amos Hart and J. Workman as Mary Sunshine.

Tia Altinay, Ronnie S. Bowman Jr., Austin Dunn, John Michael Fiumara, Danielle Marie Gonzalez, Chelsea James, Christopher Kelley, James T. Lane, Jenny LaRoche, Marty Lawson, Joseph London, Kristen Faith Oei, Denny Paschall, Angel Reda, Mariah Reives, Sean Samuels, Jeff Sullivan and Elizabeth Yanick round out the company.

The athlete and reality star joins a long line of actresses who have stepped into Roxie Hart’s heels over Chicago‘s historic Broadway run. Gwen Verdon originated the role opposite Chita Rivera‘s Velma Kelly when the musical first premiered in 1975, while Ann Reinking and Bebe Neuwirth led the revival when it opened in 1996.

In the decades since, Roxie has become something of a Broadway rite of passage, with Pamela Anderson, Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Brandy Norwood, Lisa Rinna, Ashlee Simpson, Ariana Madix, Erika Jayne and Whitney Leavitt among those who have taken on the fame-hungry murderess. The character was also played on screen by Renée Zellweger, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Oscar-winning 2002 film adaptation.

Chicago, directed by Walter Bobbie, won six Tony Awards in 1997, including Best Musical Revival, and has since become the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. The show’s celebrated John Kander and Fred Ebb score includes Broadway standards “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango,” “When You’re Good to Mama,” “Roxie” and “Razzle Dazzle.”

It will celebrate its 30th anniversary this fall.

Tickets for Chicago are now on sale.

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