‘DWTS’ season 34 contestant to star as Roxie Hart in ‘Chicago’

This Dancing With the Stars contestant is going from the ballroom to Broadway!

Following her run on season 34 of the beloved dancing competition series, Whitney Leavitt will make her Broadway debut to star as Roxie Hart in the latest production of Chicago. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star’s six-week run as part of the production begins next year.

Leavitt announced the news with a post shared to her Instagram page on Monday. ”

Grateful beyond words to ANNOUNCE that I will be joining @chicagomusical in the iconic role of Roxie Hart,” she captioned the post featuring a video of her to the iconic intro of her character’s titular musical number. “See you in New York City!”

Fans can see Leavitt as Roxie Hart at the Ambassador Theatre, with her performances running from Feb. 2 through March 15, 2026.

The coveted role marks the 32-year-old’s first foray into professional theater, but she’s proven to be a formidable performer after her time on DWTS. The mother of three and her pro partner, Mark Ballas, earned consistently high scores, effusive praise from the judges, and made a marked arc of improvement throughout her run on the show’s 34th season.

Despite such a praiseworthy showing, Leavitt and Ballas were sent packing ahead of the season’s grand finale.

That elimination proved to be controversial, with some believing the premiere of Secret Lives season 3 between the semifinals and finale of DWTS turned the dancing fandom against Leavitt.

Even her castmate, Andy Richter, has spoken out about being one of those believers. Last month, the comedian and longtime late-night mainstay — who made it all the way to week nine alongside pro partner Emma Slater before being eliminated — told Entertainment Weekly that Leavitt being sent home during season 34’s semifinals was “absolutely insane.”

“I mean, she’s an amazing dancer. And if all the sticklers who were furious about me still being in it, who were demanding perfect technical dancing, I don’t know why she would get sent home under that criterion,” Richter said.

However, the host of Sirius XM’s The Three Questions With Andy Richter podcast acknowledged “there’s a whole soap opera going on adjacent to this show online.”

“It’s a good way to sort of take the temperature of what the audience is feeling in terms of voting,” he added. “I’ve seen forever, there’s like people just like, ‘Whitney’s gotta go,’ and I’m just like, ‘What? Why?'”

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Richter theorized that the pushback against Leavitt has to do with Leavitt’s reputation on the Hulu reality series Mormon Wives, in which he said he “has heard that she’s kind of the villain,” an assertion he found preposterous.

“I need to tell you that Whitney was one of the sweetest, most positive loving people on that show,” he explained. “Beyond anybody else, from the moment I met her, she was loving, and winning, and kind, and considerate, and incredibly positive towards me… She was one of the people that definitely made me feel that I was a valuable member of this team.”

Leavitt has previously opened up about being painted as an antagonist on the reality series that follows a group of Mormon influencers, which premiered in 2024.

“There were decisions that I made during that show that nobody asked me to do,” she said. “Like, I willingly did that, but there was no context behind why I had made certain decisions.” The resulting picture of her on the series “put [her] in a dark place” and “made it hard to watch [back].”

Despite the drawbacks, it’s clear that Leavitt is leveraging her notoriety to make her dreams come true, to Broadway and beyond.