Angelica Ross on her Broadway debut, tech passion, and reclaiming musicals
Dominate center stage. The number is “My Own Best Friend” from Broadway’s longest-running American musical Chicago, and a moment Angelica Ross, making her Broadway debut as Roxie Heart, doesn’t take lightly. “It just really hits home for me because I think that so many trans people and queer people go through the stage of hating themselves,” Ross told INTO a week prior to her opening night. “And not understanding the gift that they are, and seeking validation and love outside of themselves.
When the most important thing is to recognize you’re going to have to be your own best friend, at least first.”Ross is known to most audiences for her standout performances in two Ryan Murphy-produced hit series: as Candy Ferocity, an irrepressible trans woman who meets her untimely end in Pose on FX, and as Donna Chambers in American Horror Story 1984 as well as The Chemist and The Theta in AHS Double Feature.
Her arrival on Broadway crashes through another glass ceiling, proving the ambitious artist and entrepreneur has even more tricks up her sleeve.Related: Angelica Ross Offers Advice on How to Bypass Gatekeeping as a Trans WorkerChicago originally opened in 1975, featuring a catchy Jazz Age score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, direction and choreography by Bob Fosse, and starring Chita Rivera as Velma Kelly and Gwen Verdon as Roxie.
