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NEW GIRLS IN TOWN
by Sheryl Flatow

"Break a leg" may be the preferred way of wishing a performer good luck in the theatre, but please, don't utter those words to Sandy Duncan. The popular star was scheduled to play Roxie Hart in Sacramento and Boston prior to joining the Broadway cast of Chicago on May 25. She was rehearsing in Sacramento when her leg went out from under her, and she learned that an injury suffered a week earlier was, contrary to the initial diagnosis, a broken foot. So she watched from the audience as her partner in crime, Ruthie Henshall, went on for the first time as Velma Kelly. "It was a strange feeling watching Ruthie perform in Sacramento without me," says Duncan. "It was like seeing your husband cheat."

If the prognosis she received was accurate, Duncan has by now joined Henshall on Broadway as the newest resident of the Cook County Jail, where Roxie parlays notoriety into celebrity. "I have a very definite take on the character, on who she is and how she's interpreted," says Duncan. "I think Roxie survives in the world through fantasy. She probably has done this since she was a kid. So my approach is that she's almost childlike. Nothing is premeditated. That's why you can forgive Roxie a lot. She didn't intend to kill anyone, but it happened. She wishes it hadn't, so to her mind, she's not a murderer or a criminal. It's like when kids play pretend. She lives in a world that she has created according to the way she wants it to be."

Chicago marks Duncan's return to Broadway for the first time in--can it be?--15 years, since succeeding Twiggy in My One and Only. A few years after that, she and her husband, Don Correia, packed up their two sons and left New York for Los Angeles, when Duncan was offered a starring role on the television series, "The Hogan Family."

10 WWW.PLAYBILL.COM PURE THEATRE ONLINE

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