The name on everybody’s lips is gonna be Ariana Madix. The Vanderpump Rules star made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Monday, January 29.
Madix, 38, held a bouquet of roses during her first curtain call and was all smiles while bowing for a crowd of cheering fans. Fellow VPR stars Lala Kent and Scheana Shay made the trip from Los Angeles to New York City to support Madix’s first show.
“@arianamadix absolutely crushed it,” Shay, 38, captioned her Instagram Story on Monday, posting a photo of Madix backstage. In a second post, Shay shared a video of Madix’s first bow.
“Soooooo extremely proud!!!” Shay wrote, tagging her friend.
Former VPR star Dayna Kathan was also in the crowd. (Kathan appeared on the Bravo show for two seasons from 2018 to 2020.)
“YOU GUYS. SCREAMING. CRYING. THROWING UP,” Kathan, 33, captioned her Instagram Story, referring to Madix’s performance. “SHE WAS PERFECT.”
Madix was also photographed with her boyfriend, Daniel Wai, at the show. (Madix and Wai were first spotted together in April 2023, one month after she and her boyfriend of nine years, Tom Sandoval, split amid his cheating scandal.)
Madix’s Broadway debut comes following her stint on Dancing With the Stars late last year. The reality star finished in third place during DWTS season 32, which came to an end in December 2023. That same month, Madix’s Chicago casting news was announced.
Madix revealed during an interview with Extra earlier this month that it’s been her “lifelong dream” to star on Broadway.
“It is literally the reason why anything else has ever happened,” Madix gushed about becoming a stage star. “It’s the reason why I majored in theater, … it’s the reason why I lived [in NYC] so long ago. It’s ultimately even the reason I moved to L.A. in the first place, so it’s crazy.”
Chicago is the longest-running show in Broadway history. The show’s original NYC run lasted a little over one month in 1975. The musical made its return to Broadway in 1996. Madix is the latest name on the list of famous women who’ve taken on the role of Roxie Hart over the years, including Pamela Anderson, Erika Jayne, Lisa Rinna, Ashlee Simpson and Michelle Williams, among others.
For those not well-versed in theater, Roxie is an aspiring vaudeville performer who kills her lover and is sent to Chicago’s Cook County Jail.
Madix noted that she related to Roxie’s “resilience” when discussing her character in the same interview with Extra.
“I think her story of wanting to be a dancer in vaudeville and thinking that all these opportunities had passed her by,” Madix continued. “Her story of perseverance and the way that she just picks things up and learns really quickly just how to constantly have something that’s, like, getting her to where she wants to be.”
