Christopher Cline, center, as Sergeant Fogarty, with Andrew Metzger, left, as Amos Hart, and Ellie Roddy as Roxie Hart. The national touring company production comes to the Adrienne Arsht Center starting Tuesday, June 17. (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)
The national touring company of the musical "Chicago" comes to the Adrienne Arsht Center starting Tuesday, June 17. One of the members of the company has local roots in Miami.
miamiartzine.com caught up with Christopher Cline, a recent graduate of the University of Miami’s BFA program who is on his first national tour with the company.
miamiartzine.com: You are coming back to Miami and you did spend some time here. You graduated from the University of Miami recently?
Christopher Cline: I graduated from the University of Miami exactly two years ago. I got my BFA in musical theater and that was really fun.
maz: Where are you from originally?
CC: I’m from South Jersey, so down by Atlantic City, kind of right outside of Philly, also not too far from New York.
maz: How did you end up going to University of Miami?
Christopher Cline went to the University of Miami and also rehearsed in Miami before heading off with Royal Caribbean as a member of the cast of "Mamma Mia!"
CC: Actually, I was going to school in Philadelphia, which was a lot closer to home for my first year of college, and then that was the year that COVID hit. So I got sent home halfway through the year, and it was kind of up in the air if we were going to be allowed to go back the following year or not. And then we found out that we weren't going to be able to go in person for that whole second year, and I decided that I wanted to go somewhere else to be in person, if that was an option. To get as much of the college experience as I could. And then my sister, who is a year younger than me, committed to a school in Florida (Nova Southeastern University in Davie), and we were looking at pictures of her campus, and I was like, "Wow, this is really nice. I would like to go somewhere in Florida." So then I ended up finding the University of Miami's program, and absolutely fell in love with the school. And one thing led to another, and I got in. I ended up moving down there the same time as my sister and I finished my last three years there, and it was really special.”
maz: Was your sister a theater major?
CC: No, she’s actually getting her master’s in speech pathology, so different from what I do, for sure. But we’re very close, so it was really nice for her and for my parents that we both ended up in Florida.
maz: Before you got cast in the ensemble of "Chicago" you were with Royal Caribbean performing, right?
CC: Yes, right before this, I was doing “Mamma Mia!” as part of the international company on a Royal Caribbean. I was on the ship for about seven or eight months but I worked for Royal a year in total, starting on land. The studios for rehearsals are actually in Miami on the FIU campus. They have this gorgeous, massive studio that's just kind of plopped right in the middle of their campus. So they house people in one of the old dorm buildings there. There are people from all over the world in those studios. I mean, I have friends probably from just about every country, just from working at the studios for a few months.
maz: So what’s your role in “Chicago?”
CC: I'm in the ensemble, and I also play Sergeant Fogarty. I'll go in and out of the story as him. And I dance the ensemble and have some cool feature moments. So I kind of get the best of both worlds, getting to act a few scenes, but also get to dance a lot, which is one of the main things. This show is known for its epic choreography. I always said I have certain shows that there are roles I want to play, and certain shows where I just want to be in it at all and be in the ensemble. And this is definitely a show where I'm like, I just want to be in the ensemble of Chicago. I want to do "All That Jazz." I want to dance in the number, “Roxy.” You know what I mean? I'm like, if I'm in "Chicago," I have to, have to be in those iconic numbers.
maz: Miami is the last stop for this particular production of “Chicago.” How long have you been with them?
CC: I’ve been with this tour for the entirety of the 2024-2025 season. We technically started in Birmingham, Alabama, but we were actually in Fort Myers performing for seven weeks before starting but the official start was in Birmingham.
Dancers with Ellie Rodd as Roxie Hart in the national touring production of "Chicago." (Photo by Jeremy Daniel)
maz: Did you know you always wanted to be a dancer in a Broadway musical?
CC: I wasn’t always a dancer. I loved to dance but I would say definitely I started my introduction to theater through singing and acting. But I had this natural skill, if you will, to dance. And it wasn't until college that I started taking my first dance classes, and then I started to refine some of my skills. But I think, honestly, when I first saw “Chicago” whether it was the movie or with clips online, I was really intrigued by the dancing. I was like, "Wow, there is really nothing like this." One, because it looks so fun and the dancing is so epic. But to also be a part of the legacy that it started 50 years ago and now is still going. And just to think about all the different casts and all the different people who played my part and have been a part of this show.
maz: "Chicago" is one of those shows that’s stood the test of time, don’t you think?
CC: I mean, we're talking about the 50th anniversary, which opened back 1975 and that production ran and then it was revived about 21 years later in 1996, that's the show that's currently running on Broadway, and it's the version that we do. It's crazy to think about how many people have not only done it, but how many people have seen it all over the world. Millions and millions and millions of people have seen it. There are productions that happened in Korea and in Australia and just all over the world. It’s always exciting to be a part of something like that, because everyone knows it, even non-theater people, which I found really exciting and even surprising.
maz: What kind of reaction do you get when you tour the show?
CC: Cities in the middle of the country that kind of seem like in the middle of nowhere, where no one would even really know much about theater, there are sold-out shows, lines of people, and people saying, "I grew up with ‘Chicago." "It’s my parents’ favorite show." To think about how many people know it and have seen it and just love it so much, and with that comes maybe an additional responsibility and a little bit of a pressure to really honor the show that everyone knows so much about while still bringing parts of yourself to it, but also remembering that I am just a small, small piece in this large puzzle that was created much before I was even here.
maz: Why do you think it is so timeless?
CC: There's one moment that I hear every night in the show that always kind of makes me chuckle to myself, but it's when Roxy and Velma sing at the end. “You know, in 50 years or so, it's going to change, you know, yeah, oh, it's heaven nowadays.” And the irony is that it's been 50 years and it hasn't changed. And I think that's kind of the point of that, and I think that the show will be around in another 50 years. It will resonate the same with a whole different generation of people. It's not often where you get a story where it really just rings true no matter where you are, no matter when or where you see it. It just has that element that it's like, "Wow, something about this is always going to be true." So that's why I think it's been such a hit, and I think it's just going to be a hit forever.
WHAT: "Chicago"
WHEN: 8 p.m., Tuesday, June 17 through Saturday, June 21. 2 p.m. Saturday, June 21 and 1 and 7 p.m. Sunday, June 22.
WHERE: Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami
COST: $41 to $182 (includes fees)
INFORMATION: (305) 949-6722 and arshtcenter.org
