SAN ANTONIO — Most of us spent the early months of pandemic lockdown exploring new artistic skills to pass the time, from seniors recreating iconic album covers to one California man discovering his inner inventor.
Logan Floyd was in a slightly different situation, eventually deciding it would be best to detach themselves from the Broadway dreams they'd long worked towards.
"I had to let go of 'Chicago,'" said Floyd, a nonbinary actor who attended school in Texas before starring in the long-running stage show. "For a while a lot of us were really holding onto hope. And, you know, one week turned into six turned into four months and it's kind of just, 'How long can I keep hoping for this?'"
Floyd left for New York a day after graduating from Texas State University, eventually landing a lead role in the high-energy, satirical story based off real-life 1920s trials.
“(It’s) the first time anyone’s ever paid me to do anything on a stage,” they said.
But COVID halted the touring show after only about 15 shows, bringing down the curtain on in-person theatre performances for Broadway and smaller community organizations alike.
With no certainty on when theatre might return, Floyd found themselves dabbling in film projects and traveling the country. When the pandemic started loosening its grip in 2022, it had been so long that everybody previously involved in “Chicago” had to reaudition.
Only a handful of actors from the pre-pandemic shows returned; Floyd was one of them. And they recall the moments leading up their reintroduction to live audiences last October as surreal.
“After something like that has happened... for it all to come back and be in-person with this audience that is giving to you and you’re given back, that is theatre,” Floyd said. “To really experience it after it’s been taken away is very powerful.”
They have had plenty of opportunities since then to resettle into the role of Velma, an accused killer and nightclub personality who anchors the iconic "All That Jazz" sequence. At the same time, the chaos of the last few years, Floyd says, have naturally resulted in a "more grounded" take in the way they play her.
Now, as Floyd prepares to hit the Majestic Theatre stage for four shows this weekend, they say they've come to understand gender and femininity as tools to put their own spin on Velma, a character whose story already ruptures tropes and expectations.
"(Gender) is something I can kind of turn up or turn down, which I'm finding a lot of fun to play with," they said, adding the approach allowed them to find their way through a character who identifies differently than they do, but who also knows celebrity is something that can be weaponized. "My actor heart kind of nerds out."
The role of Velma is the latest in a trend for Floyd, who in the past has brought to life Sally Bowles ("Cabaret") and Sheila Bryant ("A Chorus Line")—characters that are "a little bit sarcastic, a little darker, a little grittier."
Velma is perhaps most widely associated with Catherina Zeta-Jones, who won an Academy Award for her big-screen portrayal in 2002. But Floyd is quick to recall the stage performers who came before and made the character their own – Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking among them – as they have now done.
"They can bring in all these celebrities because the parts themselves have so much room to bring yourself to them," Floyd said, adding that the current "Chicago" production pays homage to the 1996 revival that is still touring the country, right down to their wig being named Bebe.
"It's a very cool experience for us because we got to have all of that history," they added. "And I think that bleeds back onto (the) stage."
Tickets for "Chicago" at the Majestic Theatre can be bought here. The shows are at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.
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