Kelli Finglass, director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, makes her Broadway debut in ‘Chicago’

Another Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders star is stepping onto the Broadway stage. Kelli Finglass, who has led the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders for 35 years, will make her Broadway debut delivering the opening monologue of the musical “Chicago” at the 8:00 p.m. performance on October 3 at the Ambassador Theatre, as Playbill reports.

The appearance is a one-off, but it marks an important moment for Finglass, who remains the central figure behind the world’s most famous cheerleading squad. According to Playbill, in 2026 she received the Sports Governor’s Award from the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for her contribution to sports television, the Texas sports community and public service.

Finglass first wore the star-spangled uniform in the 1980s and remains the only Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader ever invited back for a fifth and final season without an audition. Appointed director at the age of 27, she became an entrepreneur and brand builder, creating programmes that expanded the squad’s performances, visibility, profitability and community service. Television audiences know her from 16 seasons of “Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team” on CMT and from the Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries “America’s Sweethearts”.

She is not the only former cheerleader on the “Chicago” stage: another former squad member, Reece Weaver, known from “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders”, recently extended her limited run as Roxie Hart until November 1. The current revival cast also includes Lissa deGuzman as Velma Kelly, Max von Essen as Billy Flynn, Natasha Yvette Williams as Matron “Mama” Morton, Red Concepción as Amos Hart and J. Workman as Mary Sunshine.

“Chicago” remains one of Broadway’s greatest success stories. The revival began as one of City Center’s annual “Encores!” presentations and opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on November 14, 1996, before transferring to the Shubert Theatre and, since January 2003, the Ambassador Theatre. Since its 1996 debut the musical has played in 36 countries and been seen by 33 million people worldwide — making it the second-longest-running show in Broadway history, after the now-closed “The Phantom of the Opera”. The production won the 1997 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.