'Chicago' Actress Breaks Broadway Record for Longest Run as the Same Character!

Donna Marie Asbury has broken the record for playing the same character in a Broadway show for longer than anyone else ever has!

The actress played the role of June in the Broadway revival of Chicago for 20 years and now the Guinness Book of World Records has confirmed that she holds the record.

If you didn’t know, June is the “Cell Block Tango” killer who says the line, “He ran into my knife 10 times!” Donna also covered the roles of Roxie Hart, Velma Kelly, and Mama Morton as an understudy.

Donna joined the cast of the Broadway production in March 1999 and left the cast on June 3, 2019.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better exit when I left the show,” she told Broadway.com. “We started the [Guinness] submission process in July of 2019. They have to be very thorough. Walter Bobbie and Barry Weissler sent letters! This June 3 was a bittersweet day for me anyway with everything going on in the world. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I have the right to feel any happiness right now.’ But at 7:30 in the morning, my husband said, ‘Check your email!’ I went between giggling and tearing up. It’s a neat thing.”