'There Is So Much Room to Play': Why Ariana Madix Is Back on Broadway in Chicago

“The reality far surpassed the dream,” Ariana Madix recalls of her Broadway debut and box-office record-breaking run in Chicago back in January at the Ambassador Theatre. “It was good! It was great! It was grand,” she says with a laugh. “When you have a dream like that, it feels so lofty and so unattainable. And there are so many things in life where you experience the reality of a dream, and it can let you down. And I have to say that it did the opposite.”

Now having achieved and succeeded in her Broadway dream, Madix returns this month to Chicago as Roxie Hart through September 1.

Madix is the breakout star of Bravo’s reality series Vanderpump Rules, who has gone on to be a finalist in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. Her original goal starting out was actually to be a stage actor (she studied theatre in college). After doing Chicago, Madix is determined to balance both reality TV and the stage. At the time of the interview, Madix was on a break and calling in from Fiji, where she was filming Love Island USA as its new host (the entire season is now available to stream on Peacock).

Watch: Chicago's Ariana Madix Is a Lifelong Playbill Collector

“It's been so much fun. Love Island has been my favorite reality show for many years,” Madix shares. “It feels like every time I go into The Villa, we get to play dress up, and just go full tilt with whatever the look is.” Madix adds that Broadway has given her one tool that she’s been applying to her work as the show’s new host. “I feel like my posture is so much better than it used to be! I'm constantly thinking about pulling up. And I can thank [Chicago Dance Captain] David Bushman for that.”

Madix admits that it’s a bit tougher to physically and vocally prepare for her return to Broadway. “The first time around, I was in rehearsal for three weeks. This time around, I'm going to have two days,” she says nervously. “So part of me is trying not to freak out about that.” She apologizes ahead of time to her neighbors in Fiji who'd been listening to her constant vocal warmups and “my cat noises.”

But nerves aside, Madix seems giddy with excitement to perform on Broadway again and have more chances to develop her interpretation of Roxie. “Roxie can be a tough person to like,” she explains. “And something that surprised me was the relationship that formed between the character and myself. I kept finding new ways to root for her…like all the time. I didn't know that that would have been possible before spending eight shows a week with her.”

Get your copy of the Ariana Madix's Chicago Playbill here

Now that she’s gotten past the Broadway debut nerves, Madix is looking forward to going deeper into the material. “Chicago is the kind of show that, once you're comfortable with that incredible material, there is so much room to play,” she explains. “It's a facial expression from another actor, or it's a lengthy pregnant pause in something, or it's just all these different moments that sometimes the audience is probably not even noticing. But it's something that you're doing with each other on stage and it just makes it feel so real. And it makes it so much fun."

Adds Madix, with an earnest tone of joy in her voice, "It’s why I love theatre so much. I love that it's always different.”

In particular, it’s the unscripted moments that sometimes pop up during a show that she lives for. “You don't want them to happen all the time…Let’s say someone goes up on lines, or something happens with the orchestra, or a prop doesn't do what it's supposed to do…But [they] give the audience something so memorable that they'll never forget it.” Those moments on stage have taught Madix a very valuable life lesson. “I think when I was younger, I maybe would have panicked in those situations.” But now she says she’s learned to pivot, adjust, and have fun with it. A lesson she thinks everyone should learn how to do.

Ariana Madix photographed at 48 Lounge Heather Gershonowitz

Another part that Madix is excited for during her current run is the chance to work more alongside Tony-nominated Broadway veteran, and audience favorite, Robyn Hurder, who joined the cast as Velma during the last two weeks of Madix’s initial run. “Getting to sit, literally sit, on stage during [“I Can’t Do It Alone”] and watch her perform for me on stage…I can pinch myself. I've never been so lucky.”

Not only that, but Madix says that Hurder is as kind off-stage as she is talented on stage. “She is one of the most supportive, funny, and incredible people that you could ever be lucky enough to work with...That last two weeks that we got to work together, we developed such a great relationship that I'm so excited that we get to pick back up where we left off.” (Hurder is currently recovering from an injury but will return to Chicago August 6.)

Madix says that because of their relationship offstage, the pair trusted each other enough to have more fun performing on stage. “Something that we would do in our scenes is we would play. I take a lot of joy in feeling like it's different every night. And that's something that we had so much fun doing together in the show. So, I'm very excited to go from where we left off and see what kind of different things come up on stage this time around.”

As Madix gets ready to head back to the Love Island set, she remembers what it was like coming out every night of the stage door of the Ambassador. “Sometimes people would say this was their first Broadway show and that's such an honor for me. I'm always hoping that I've delivered and that they feel as though I've given the level of performance that they deserve to get when they're coming to see a Broadway show.”