Lot of familiar faces in Lexington Theatre Co. version of ‘Chicago’ this weekend

Since its inception, Lyndy Franklin Smith envisioned The Lexington Theatre Company as a place where professional actors and theater artists from Lexington, such as herself, could come ply their trade for hometown audiences.

It has happened numerous times in the company’s short history, but no show has exemplified that goal as much as this weekend’s production of “Chicago.”

The principal cast features three actors who have called Lexington home.

What makes it particularly interesting, Franklin Smith says, is that trio, and all six of the principal performers, took very different paths to professional theater careers. It’s a point she wants to make sure the rest of the ensemble, largely made up of aspiring professional actors, understands.

“It’s so important for the young people to hear that there’s not as one way to make a living doing this,” Franklin Smith says. “And there’s not just one path to getting there, that there’s so many different avenues.”

Haley Fish as Velma

Between Diana Evans School of Dance, the School for Creative and Performing Arts, and other formative experiences, Haley Fish is no stranger to the Lexington Opera House stage.

“I grew up there,” Fish says. “There are so many memories in that building, and I am so excited to be back. I haven’t been in there since my senior dance recital. I mean, I can’t wait to be back performing again on that stage where it all kind of came together for me.”

Often professional performers from Lexington come back through the Opera House on a national tour as part of its Broadway Live series. Fish skipped that and went directly to Broadway — so directly she had to get permission to miss some rehearsals for the Broadway production of “Cats” to walk in her graduation from New York University.

“My mom was not gonna let me skip that part,” Fish says. “She said we paid for school and you will be walking across the stage. All right. My stage manager got a good kick out of that one.”

That was her Broadway debut as Rumpleteazer. From there, Fish went on to “Hello Dolly,” with both Bette Midler and Bernadette Peters in the title role, “Kiss Me Kate” and, after and extended break for COVID, she is now a vacation swing in “The Music Man.”

When she heard the Lexington Theatre Company was doing “Chicago” though, she asked her agent to look into it.

“I’ve done this show, but I’ve never played this part before, and it’s so delicious. It’s so fun,” Fish says.

Velma is a vaudeville performer who tries to parlay a charge of murdering her husband and sister into a media circus and major payday and grows jealous when another woman accused of murder steals her spotlight.

“It’s like slapstick humor,” Fish says. “It’s a full comedy show. I gotta go home and work on my bits.”

Less than 24 hours after “Chicago” closes, Fish will be in the first rehearsal for her next show while continuing swing work on “The Music Man.”

Gilda Wabbit as Mary Sunshine

Growing up in Frankfort, Gilda Wabbit checked a lot of traditional aspiring singer-actor boxes, including the Governor’s School for the Arts, the voice program at the University of Kentucky and a busy career in New York.

Then, life took a hard turn seeing drag queen Sutton Lee Seymour perform at a New York Bar.

“I went to her one day and I said, ‘Is this your job?’ And she said, ‘Yeah. I get to wear the clothes I want, I get to do the music I want. I am the star. I write my own jokes I perform every night,’ and I said, ‘OK, this is what I want to do,’ because at the time … I was like doing two full time jobs, managing a restaurant and being a full time auditioner and performer.”

While in New York, Wabbit experienced a little viral fame when she was photographed in a subway car sitting next to a Muslim Woman in a hijab. The photo went viral when a right-wing Twitter account posted it with the caption, “This is the future liberals want.”

That gave Wabbit numerous chances to comment to a variety of outlets, telling Buzzfeed, “I won’t speak for all liberals, but my goal is for everyone — white, brown, drag queen, soccer mom, cisgender, trans, heterosexual, queer, working class, middle class — to be able to exist as they choose without judgment or fear.”

Not long after that, Wabbit moved back to Kentucky and landed a regular gig at the Play Louisville, a a drag bar. In addition to eight shows a week there, she collaborates with other drag artists in the region to create shows and performs in theater having just wrapped up production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at Play.

“I love to be the girl you call because you know no one else can do the role as opposed to the girl you call to audition with 500 other people who can do what she does,” Wabbit says. “I’m happy to say, ‘you know what, I’m not a tapper. Don’t call me for a tap role.’ But if you want someone to come on stage and sing a high b-flat the first time they open their mouth, I got you.”

When Franklin Smith and her husband, producing director Jeromy Smith, decided they wanted to produce “Chicago,” they called Wabbit, who they knew from teaching and directing at UK, about Mary Sunshine, the gossip journalist who chronicles the stories of Velma and Roxie. That was three years ago, when “Chicago” was originally planned for the summer of 2020.

“I’m kind of grateful that it took this long,” Wabbit says. “I feel like over the course of that three years I sort of stepped into a better sense of self and a better sense of like groundedness. And I can bring a less anxious, less seeking validation person into the rehearsal room so I can do a better job of like playing and being open to feedback and creating something collaboratively and what a privilege.”

Brance Cornelius as Amos

Franklin Smith and Brance Cornelius go back to Lafayette High School where they were in shows together. From there, he went Murray State University, and after graduation, “the goal was to work. I just wanted to say, ‘This is my job. I do theater.’ And so, it took me a little bit of everywhere.” For a while he went from job to job in regional theaters, eventually moving to New York and landing some national and international tours, and working in cruise lines and theme parks. He made a turn back to storytelling theater, directing at the high school and collegiate level right about the time the pandemic showed up.

That brought Cornelius back to Kentucky, but while he thought he was going to graduate school, he found his old high school friend had different ideas.

Cornelius has the distinction of being in the principal casts for both of this summer’s Lexington Theatre Company shows, playing Scuttle the Seagull in “The Little Mermaid” and “Mr. Cellophane” Amos in “Chicago.”

“It was a blast,” he says of “Mermaid.” “I’m physically and vocally still exhausted. But it was so much fun. I mean, I got to play a gigantic animated character from a movie that I saw in movie theaters when it first came out. I love doing kids theater, because their reaction is so honest.”

He enjoys the change of pace in “Chicago,” playing the dimmest part in a show full of “shiny” characters.

“I think that’s part of why character actors love what we do is because it’s just a whole mix of stuff,” Cornelius says. “And I’m kind of grateful that other people are sweating and running around and I’m just sitting on the sidelines waiting to make my entrance. It’s, it’s nice for the other people to do the work.”

But Cornelius will continue doing work for the theater as part of its artist development and outreach program.

“The fact that he’s going to come on in a larger role on our team,” Franklin Smith says, “how fun is it to get to bring everything that we learned back to our hometown, and to give back to our community.”

Chicago

What: The Lexington Theatre Company production of the musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fossé.

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4 and 5, 1 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6 and 1 p.m. Aug. 7.

Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.

Tickets: $36-$86

Online: lexingtontheatrecompany.org

Call: 859-233-3535