Fortunately, working in the travel industry gives me access and insight into what’s new and noteworthy around the world. Sometimes, though, the best travel stories lead you back to somewhere you’ve already been.
In 2024, I travelled to New York City to see Ariana Madix of Vanderpump Rules make her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago. Two years later, another reality television favourite brought me back to the Ambassador Theatre — but this time, the casting intrigued me for an entirely different reason.
If you watched Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, chances are you remember Reece Weaver.
I have always gravitated toward nonfiction — documentaries, biographies and stories that give us a glimpse behind the curtain into lives and worlds we might otherwise never experience. America’s Sweethearts did exactly that. The docuseries went well beyond the famous white boots, blue-and-white uniforms and impossibly high kicks of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It offered an intimate look at what it takes to earn — and keep — a coveted place on one of the most recognizable dance teams in the world.
And among the women we came to know was Reece.
Meet Reece Weaver
Weaver joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders as part of the 2023 rookie class and remained with the team for three seasons. Her first year with DCC coincided with the first season of America’s Sweethearts, making her journey from hopeful candidate to professional cheerleader part of the series from the beginning.
She also became a fan favourite.
Reece’s dancing certainly commanded attention, but so did the person audiences met when the performance stopped. There was an undeniable sweetness to her, but also a confidence and stage presence that emerged the moment she performed.
That duality, it turns out, suits Roxie Hart remarkably well.
After three seasons, Weaver announced in 2026 that she was leaving DCC and taking what she described as a “leap of faith” into the unknown.
That leap landed her on Broadway.
On September 7, Weaver made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in the Tony Award-winning revival of Chicago, for a limited engagement at the Ambassador Theatre.
America’s Sweetheart Meets Chicago’s Merry Murderess
Roxie Hart is one of musical theatre’s great antiheroines: ambitious, adulterous, manipulative and utterly intoxicated by the possibility of becoming famous.
When her lover, Fred Casely, threatens to leave her, Roxie shoots him. Facing a murder charge, she quickly discovers that notoriety can provide something her years of dreaming about vaudeville never did: an audience.
With slick defence lawyer Billy Flynn orchestrating the spectacle, Roxie learns to manipulate reporters and public sympathy, transforming herself from accused murderer into media darling. When attention begins shifting elsewhere, she finds increasingly outrageous ways of pulling it back.
Roxie and fellow murderess Velma Kelly ultimately become rivals for something arguably more valuable to them than freedom: the spotlight.
The brilliance of Chicago is that underneath the music, humour, choreography and fishnet stockings is a satire that still feels remarkably contemporary. Crime becomes entertainment. Journalism becomes spectacle. Celebrity becomes currency. And a compelling enough public persona can sometimes matter more than the truth.
Yet Roxie wasn’t entirely invented.
The Woman Behind Roxie Hart
Chicago has roots in a sensational chapter of American history.
In 1924, Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins covered the trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, two women accused of murder whose cases became fodder for Chicago’s fiercely competitive newspapers. Watkins subsequently turned what she witnessed into the 1926 play Chicago. Decades later, that play became the basis for John Kander, Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse’s musical.
Annan became the principal inspiration for Roxie Hart, while Gaertner helped inspire Velma Kelly.
That history makes the casting of Reece Weaver particularly intriguing.
The young woman audiences came to know through America’s Sweethearts seemed almost diametrically opposed to Roxie: sincere rather than calculating, somewhat innocent rather than cynical, and apparently more comfortable crediting others than demanding the spotlight.
Which raised the obvious question for me:
How does America’s sweetheart become Roxie Hart?
It would be easy to look at Weaver’s reality television profile and assume this was simply another example of Broadway tapping a recognizable personality to put people in seats.
That would overlook her training.
Before DCC, Weaver attended performing arts middle and high schools, studied dance at the University of Alabama and performed with the university’s dance team. She has also trained in the Fosse style — particularly relevant for a production whose movement vocabulary is inseparable from Bob Fosse’s legacy.
Dance, however, is only part of Roxie.
Performing with DCC demanded extraordinary stamina, precision and the ability to communicate physically. Broadway requires something more: acting, singing, vocal projection, comedic timing and the ability to sustain a character and story throughout a live performance.
We already knew Reece Weaver could dance.
The more interesting question was whether she could make us forget we were watching Reece Weaver.
She did.
From Reece Weaver to Roxie Hart
What impressed me most was how completely at home Weaver looked on a Broadway stage.
From the moment she appeared, the audience was clearly excited to see her. There was that unmistakable feeling of recognition — there’s Reece Weaver — but the novelty quickly gave way to the performance itself.
There were moments when I actually forgot I was watching Reece and simply saw Roxie Hart.
That, to me, says a great deal about her acting.
Her years of dance training were immediately apparent. She moved with the ease and precision of someone who has spent a very long time developing her craft, but it was her ability to inhabit Roxie that surprised me most.
She found a wonderful balance between Roxie’s innocence, ambition, flirtation and calculation.
During one sequence surrounded by the male ensemble, there was a moment when she seemed almost delighted by all the attention — a playful, wide-eyed sense of look at all these men around me. Then, almost instantly, another side appeared: confident, knowing and entirely capable of devouring the room.
The transition was seamless.
She never lingered so heavily in one quality that it felt forced. Instead, she moved between sweetness and sensuality with just enough of each to keep Roxie unpredictable and compelling.
Perhaps most tellingly, there was never a moment when I felt awkward for her or conscious that I was watching someone parachuted into a Broadway production for a limited engagement.
She looked like she belonged there.
And Then She Sang
Her voice may have been the biggest surprise of the evening for me.
Weaver has a deeper, smoother vocal quality than I expected, and it worked beautifully within the production. Her tone brought another dimension to Roxie and complemented Lissa deGuzman’s Velma particularly well when the two women sang together.
Their final number was especially impressive.
Rather than competing vocally, their voices sat comfortably alongside one another, creating a satisfying contrast while still blending beautifully.
By that point in the evening, I was no longer thinking about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Netflix or whether Weaver could make the leap to Broadway.
I was simply watching Roxie Hart.
A Cast That Makes Chicago Work
Of course, one performer does not carry Chicago alone, and part of the pleasure of returning to the production was being reminded just how strong the ensemble is.
Red Concepción, who plays Amos Hart, was every bit as delightful as I remembered from seeing him two years ago. Amos is one of those characters the audience instinctively embraces. There is humour in him, but also such vulnerability that you cannot help but feel for him. Concepción brings warmth and wonderful comic timing to the role, helping carry the story along while giving it some of its most human moments.
J. Workman’s Mary Sunshine also provided one of the evening’s great audience moments. For those encountering the character for the first time, there is a wonderfully theatrical reveal that produced exactly the kind of delighted reaction you hope for during live theatre.
I knew what was coming. Many people around me clearly did not.
And that was half the fun.
It is one of the enduring pleasures of returning to a show like Chicago: even when you know the punchlines, the reveals and the songs, you get to experience them again through the reactions of people discovering them for the first time.
The cast works as an ensemble in the truest sense. There are major personalities, comic turns and memorable moments throughout the production, yet Weaver never disappeared among them.
She held her own.
The Takeaway
Chicago brought me back to Broadway because of Reece Weaver, but it reminded me why returning to a long-running production can be every bit as enjoyable as discovering a new one.
A different performer can change the energy of a familiar character. A new audience can make an old reveal feel new again. And occasionally, someone you thought you knew from an entirely different world can surprise you.
Reece Weaver did exactly that.
If a Broadway show is part of your next trip to New York City, knowing what you want to see is only part of the equation. Knowing how to navigate Broadway — from choosing shows and purchasing tickets to planning for groups — can make the experience considerably easier.
That brings me to one of my favourite resources for planning a Broadway experience: Broadway Inbound. Broadway Inbound works directly with Broadway shows and is particularly useful for travellers, groups and anyone planning a New York theatre experience. Beyond tickets, its website is a helpful place to discover what’s playing, learn more about individual productions and start planning your Broadway experience before arriving in New York.
It’s a resource I use myself — and a good one to bookmark when Broadway is on your travel itinerary.
As for Reece Weaver, Broadway was once a dream. She can officially cross that one off the list.
What comes next? Dancing with the Stars? I’ll be watching.
NOTE: Reece Weaver’s run as Roxie Hart has been extended through November 1, 2026, giving audiences two additional weeks to see her in Chicago on Broadway.
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