Actress says she’s at home in new role

Robert Macy

Monday, July 12, 1999 | 9:34 a.m.

Marilu Henner believes her latest role - as the murderess bimbo Roxie Hart in the stage play "Chicago" - is a great fit.

"I don't think there's a character with which I'm more comfortable," she said recently as she prepared to return to the lead role of the show with a touring company now playing at the 1,800-seat Mandalay Bay Theatre here.

A native of the Windy City, Henner says she empathizes with her Roxie character, having played the role 312 times during a nine-month stint on Broadway in 1997 and 1998.

Henner, perhaps best known as Elaine Nardi in the TV classic "Taxi," won rave reviews for her portrayal of Roxie, a nightclub dancer who kills her lover, then hires Chicago's shrewdest lawyer (played by Ben Vereen), who turns her crime into celebrity headlines and an acquittal.

Playing "Chicago" has special meaning for Henner, who was helping run her family's dance studio and performing in the Illinois Ballet Company by the time she was 14.

"I've always had dancing in my blood," she said during a break in rehearsals. "Once dancing's in your bones, it's in your bones forever."

The Henner clan - Mom, Dad, four daughters and two sons - ran the Henner Dancing School out of a garage in back of their Chicago home. They taught students ranging in age from 2 to 80, with each sibling taking over their own classes at age 14. Students ranged from neighborhood kids to nuns from a nearby convent who took stretch classes.

"We provided backstage classes to Catholicism," Henner said with a laugh.

At age 17, Henner was approached by a family friend, Jim Jacobs, to audition for a role in a new play he had created. A whimsical musical about teens in a simpler era, the production was entitled "Grease."

Broadway producers saw the show at a small Chicago theater and Jacobs' production was headed for a niche in entertainment history.

So was Henner, although she didn't know it at the time.

Attending the University of Chicago on four scholarships, she received a call from Jacobs asking her to come to New York and audition for a part in the national touring company of "Grease."

"I told him I couldn't, that I had two papers due," she recounted. "Then I started walking across the campus, looked at the library, looked at my car, and jumped in and headed for the airport."

In New York, she entered the rehearsal hall to audition with other unknowns, including a couple of budding actors named John Travolta and Richard Gere. Wearing the same clothes she's worn on campus the day before, she won the part.

"I thought, this is my destiny. I had 15 hours to go home to Chicago and pack up my life and return to rehearsals."

Her success on stage led to television commercials - 28 ranging from Playtex apparel to Samsonite luggage.

She was offered a role in the series "Paper Chase" in 1977. While it was in the works, another role surfaced - that of a streetwise New Yorker in a TV pilot called "Taxi." The role was originally cast for a 34-year-old woman with a 16-year-old daughter. Henner, at 24, hardly fit. But a fit was made, Henner passed on "Paper Chase," and she became a fixture on the television icon.

Does she ever think "What if?"

"All the time. "Taxi" to me is forever."

She still sees "Taxi" grads Tony Danza, Danny DeVito and Judd Hirsch. The same holds true for alums of her other hit TV series, "Evening Shade" - Burt Reynolds, Hal Holbrook and Charles Durning.

She recently wrapped up the film "Man on the Moon" with Jim Carrey, which will be out later this year. It's the latest of 14 feature films and nine TV movies she's done.

She also hosted the talk show "Marilu" and authored a best-selling autobiography, followed by two more - "Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover" and "The 30 Day Total Health Makeover." Two more books are due out this fall - a parenting book, "I Refuse to Raise A Brat," and a children's book, "Bratland."

She and director-producer Robert Lieberman have two sons, Nicky, 5, and Joey, 3.

She is scheduled to play the Chicago lead here through Aug. 22 before beginning her latest book tour.