Longtime Chicago Star Amra-Faye Wright on Making a Career Out of Playing Velma Kelly

When Amra-Faye Wright belts out, "Oh, I love my life" as Velma Kelly in the long-running Broadway dazzler Chicago, she means it. The triple-threat has been playing the role of the vaudeville queen for 18 years. "I fell into this role, and I've been able to make a career out of it," Wright says, "which I didn't intend to do. It's a role I love wholeheartedly; I feel very blessed to have been able to do it this long."

Wright first played Velma in 2001 on the U.K. national tour. Since then, she’s also appeared in the West End, South African, Japanese and international touring companies of Chicago. She made her Broadway debut in the role in 2006 and has taken it on again and again at the Ambassador Theatre for 13 years. This is hardly a conventional path for a performer, but Wright reveals that her introduction to the musical theater world was also atypical: “I didn't have any access to theater,” she says about growing up in South Africa. “Fortunately for me, I did have a fantastic classical ballet teacher in my small town." It wasn’t until later in her 30s that Wright appeared in a few musical theater productions in her home country. “It was only when I went to England and got this role quite by accident that I decided, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do,’” she says.

Job security is something many actors aspire to, but few find in their careers. "It doesn't happen in our industry very often—unless you're in that really top echelon or if you're in the chorus and can go from show to show," Wright says. "What a blessing to have been able to make a career out of Chicago."

Wright is 58 and prioritizes a healthy lifestyle to sustain herself for eight shows a week: "I'm very strict about how I keep myself fit. I don't go overboard. I'm not a vegan or vegetarian," she says. "I keep a balance. I keep my mind in a place that I don't allow it to spiral out of control. If I get influenced by anybody else's negative thoughts, it can be a slippery slope down. I take care of those things, and then the rest takes care of itself."

Wright has enjoyed aging in the role of Velma. "Velma is ageless, really. The more life experience you have, the older you are, the more interesting your point of view becomes, the more you realize how little you actually know," she says. "When you're younger, you think you have a handle on things. As you get older, you realize you don't. That kind of letting go is the most wonderful feeling in the world. To be able to be in the same role and see how that has changed the way I approach Velma has been very interesting to me. Why shouldn't you see Velma in all her glory?"

It has crossed Wright's mind to seek out other performance opportunities. "Over the years, there were moments when I thought, ‘Gosh, I really have got to get out of this show and explore a few other things.’ Then I've come back to it and thought, ‘Why? I'm so happy doing it,'" she says. Being able to be in a stable position with Chicago has helped me to have that balance in my life, which I treasure.’ This is my life, and I'm very, very happy with it."

Catch Wright in Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre, and watch the video below!