Star power: Anderson will be starring Chicago
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Hold onto your hats and grab your pistols: Pamela Anderson will be taking back control over her own narrative this spring with an appearance in long-running musical hit Chicago.
Producers for the show announced today that former Baywatch star Anderson would be playing Roxie Hart, the femme fatale made famous by Renée Zellweger in the Oscar-winning 2003 film.
Anderson will be taking to the stage in her Broadway debut at New York’s Ambassador Theatre on Tuesday April 12 for an eight-week run ending Sunday, June 5.
Chicago was created by Bob Fosse, John Kander and Fred Ebb in 1975 - with Gwen Verdon playing the first iteration of Roxie.
Though the original run ended in 1977, Chicago was revived in 1996 and has recently marked 25 years on stage.
It’s a role that Anderson is clearly relishing the chance to get stuck into.
In a statement, the actress said she had “always been a huge fan of Bob Fosse’s & Gwen Verdon’s work” and said that playing Roxie was “a dream fulfilled”.
“Performing Fosse, you don’t have time to get in your head. You can’t dance, sing and think at the same time. There is a freedom, a unique joy in knowing it’s all about the work. Playing Roxie Hart is a sweet escape for me.”
Anderson’s craving for a “sweet escape” might well be due to the recent controversy surrounding Hulu show Pam & Tommy.
Starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan as Pamela and her then-husband, Mötley Crüe bandmate Tommy Lee, the show explores the media furore surrounding the pair’s sex tape, which made headlines around the world when it was leaked in the mid-1990s.
However, Anderson objected to the way she was characterised in the show, with one source telling People that it had “reopened a wound” for her and that the sex tape’s release had been a “very traumatising situation.”
However, Anderson is taking matters into her own hands with an upcoming Netflix documentary on her life.
Announced last week, the doc will be directed by Ryan White and is billed as the “definitive” take on a pop culture icon.
It was also endorsed by Anderson on social media, with a tweet suggesting it would portray her “real story.”
