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Broadway Gossip Summer 2016

Bright Star and Lin-Manuel Miranda leave Broadway, but Jaime Camil comes storming on in Chicago, as we look at the hot Broadway Gossip for summer 2016.

Bright Star is the first post-Tony show to bite the dust. The musical by a couple of Texas natives—comic/banjo player-turned-film-star Steve Martin and composer/Paul Simon’s wife Edie Brickell—struggled to find its audience, despite picking up a Best Music Drama Desk Award and Best Musical/Best Score Outer Critics Awards (and decent reviews). But it tanked at the Tonys and so it will be playing its last performance on the Great White Way on June 26th. 

jaime camil billy flynn chicago

Photo: Jeremy Daniel

This year’s Tony broadcast was sizzling with Hispanic heat during On Your Feet’s production number featuring guest diva Gloria Estefan, but be advised: pretty soon the hit show playing the Marquis Theatre won’t be the only Latino game in town. Jaime Camil, known for his role as Rogelio De La Vega on the CW's Jane the Virgin, will make his Broadway debut in the Great White Way’s longest-running American musical: Chicago. The handsome actor will take the stage playing alongside his long-time friend Bianca Marroquín—a very big deal since it marks the first time two Mexican-born actors will lead the cast of a Broadway musical.

Marroquín, whose history with the Kander and Ebb classic dates back to 2002, stars as sexy 1920s murderess Roxy Hart, while Camil, who is set to leave after a limited run of only 24 performances (i.e., July 31st), is playing it all debonair (suave tux) and smarmy (slick patter) as the hottest lawyer in the Windy City, Billy Flynn.

Finally, the buzz around this year’s Tony-winning Best Musical (and 10 other Tony Awards...come on, do I even have to say the name? Okay, just for the record, Hamilton) is still humming due to the July 9th departure of the show creator/title character, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Stepping into the role full time on July 11th is Javier Muñoz, who has been Miranda’s alternate since the show opened last August. (Note: While the show was still in previews, President Obama saw Muñoz’s Hamilton!)

The  New York Times, which made a point to catch one of his performances, said this of Muñoz,:"His Hamilton is sexy with his penetrating stare and Don Juan smile. When he's courting the ladies and other characters describe him as a tomcat, you know exactly what they mean."

Also exiting Hamilton on July 9th: Leslie Odom Jr., who aced a Tony for his memorable take on the character of Aaron Burr, and Phillipa Soo—the Tony nominee who originated the role of Eliza Hamilton—who’s leaving the show to star as the title waitress in Amélie, the musical adaptation of  the 2001 film romance set in Paris.

About the Author

City Guide Theatre Editor Griffin Miller moved to New York to pursue an acting/writing career in the 1980s after graduating magna cum laude from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Since then, she has written for The New York Times, For the Bride, Hotels, and a number of other publications, mostly in the areas of travel and performance arts. An active member of The New York Travel Writers Association, she is also a playwright and award-winning collage artist. In addition, she sits on the board of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Griffin is married to Richard Sandomir, a reporter for The New York Times.

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