Zoe Ventoura is leaving small town Packed To The Rafters and moving to big city musical, Chicago! We are so proud of the Australian actress who we grew up watching on Home and Away, Love Child and even most recently Doctor, Doctor.
Get ready to dance in your seats as Zoe puts on a show of a lifetime. If you haven’t watched Chicago yet you’re in for a real treat!
Zoe explained to Sunrise, “It’s set in the 1920s when people were a bit fame hungry, based on real life stories where women would commit crime and go on these tours… (murder) would make them incredibly famous.”
Our first look at Zoe Ventoura as Velma Kelly.
(Image: Aussie Theatre)Make sure you brush up on famous jailbird ballads like the Cell Block Tango, All That Jazz and Razzle Dazze so you can sing your heart out! (Just let the real performers be heard.)
Ventoura plays lead Velma, former starlet turned death row inmate… which only increased her fame. Her crime? Killing her co-star sister and husband, after she caught “spreadeagle” after a show. You could almost say, “they had it coming, they only have themselves to blameee…”
“Well, I was in such a state of shock that I completely blacked out; I can’t remember a thing. It wasn’t until later, when I was washing the blood of my hands, I even knew they were dead.”
Chicago the Musical Australian cast from left to right: Asabi Goodman (Matron ‘Mama’ Norton), Zoe Ventoura (Velma Kelly), Anthony Warlow (Billy Flynn), Lucy Maunder (Roxie Hart) and Peter Rowsthorn (Amos Hart).
(Image: Aussie Theatre)But word on the street is that Roxie Hart (played by Zoe’s longtime friend Lucy Maunder in stage play Mary Poppins) steals her spotlight. “First she steals my publicity. Then she steals my lawyer, my trial date. And now she steals my goddamn garter.”
Talking about lawyers, meet Billy Flynn (played by Anthony Warlow, one of Zoe’s real life musical idols.) You might know him in the Australian productions of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Les Misérables.
But have you ever seen him as the evil-doer? “You mean just one thing to me (Roxie): you call me when you got $5000.” Explaining his corrupt ways, “This trial…. The whole world… it’s all… show business.”
Velma’s arch enemy Roxie, played by real life long-term friend Lucy Maunder.
(Image: Aussie Theatre)We can’t wait to see Chicago the Musical on the big stage starring famous Australian actors and actresses!
Especially when Zoe Ventoura shows us how good it is to be bad as wicked starlet Velma Kelly…
Sign up here to be the first-to-know when Chicago the Musical tickets go on sale this week… so you don’t miss this “brilliant blend of sexy and fun.”
