Reece Weaver stepped into Broadway this week, taking over as Roxie Hart in Chicago at New York's Ambassador Theatre. The former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader arrived with scrutiny attached, but opening-night reaction suggested the audience was far more interested in the performance than the debate around the casting.
Sealy Sikes, who attended with her mum Tammy Pack, said plainly, "The audience loved her," after watching Weaver make her bow. Sikes also said, "She did a great job, she's a very big, charismatic actor," a useful counterpoint to the criticism that had followed the casting before Weaver ever hit the stage.
Opening Night at Ambassador Theatre
Weaver's first bow landed in a house tied to one of Broadway's most durable titles, and clips shared on social media showed applause building around her entrance. Sikes said, "It was a little bit shaky at the beginning, but if I wasn't hyper aware that it was her first time, I wouldn't have even thought anything about it." That is the kind of opening-night read that matters most for a role built on visibility: the room either buys in or it doesn't.
Sikes went further, saying, "Her strong suit is the acting and dancing," and adding, "She's a great singer but of the three talents that's probably not her strong suit, relatively speaking." That kind of breakdown is more useful than generic praise because it points to the actual mechanics of a Broadway transition: a performer can win over a crowd even if one skill is not the loudest part of the package.
From Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
Weaver retired from the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders before this debut, and her exit became a major storyline during the third season of America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. That background explains why this casting traveled beyond Broadway circles: viewers already knew her as part of a Netflix series, so the move into Chicago came with a built-in audience and a built-in debate about whether profile or talent was doing the hiring.
The criticism followed the same line that now follows a lot of stunt casting, with the charge that her name carried more weight than her résumé. But Weaver had already been open about theatrical ambitions after leaving the squad, and this debut turns that ambition into a test in public, not a promise on a screen.
Roxie Hart in Chicago
Sikes said, "If that's something that gets people back in the seats and re-interested in a classic that has to just continuously fill out that auditorium, then I would say that's a good thing." She also noted that she was less familiar with Weaver before the curtain went up, which makes her response a cleaner measure than a fan-first reaction. On that evidence, Weaver's first night did what stunt casting is supposed to do: it drew eyes, filled seats with conversation, and gave the room a reason to keep watching.
For anyone tracking whether this move works beyond the headline, the real question is simple: can Weaver keep turning curiosity into a steady run as Roxie Hart, or was this only an opening-night spike? The applause says she cleared the first hurdle, and in Broadway terms that is where the business starts.
