Ariana DeBose Reveals One of Her Dream Broadway Roles
Exclusive: The West Side Story and Love Hurts star divulges one (and only one) of her dream Broadway castings.
Indeed, the current iteration of the Kander and Ebb musical about independent women in Jazz Age Chi-Townâand the men they kill along the wayâhas been playing in New Yorkâs Theater District since 1996 and is currently the longest-running musical still playing on the Great White Way. It is also a revival of the original Bob Fosse production from 1975, which perhaps serendipitously starred Chita Rivera in the role of Velma Kelly. Rivera also originated on stage the character of Anita in West Side Story. Thatâs the role DeBose won an Oscar for reinterpreting in this century.
âI will play Velma Kelly one day,â DeBose continues. âI donât know when that day will be. But I got some things up my sleeve, which is why Iâm not telling you my ultimate goal, because I want you to be surprised when I do it.â
In the meantime, DeBose is getting to let her action badass flag fly in Love Hurts, a comedy genre film where her Rose is a semi-femme fatale agent of chaos in the life of mild-mannered Gable (Ke Huy Quan), a pleasant seeming realtor who is revealed to be a retired assassin that once was ordered to put DeBoseâs Rose in the ground. Instead he let her go, not expecting her to ever show up again in his life. Itâs complicatedâas are fight sequences that let DeBose indulge in a different kind of choreography than of the Broadway variety.
âI look at fight sequences, action sequences, and itâs just another form of dance,â DeBose explains. âItâs the same palette, different colors, right? So itâs not like Iâm going to fight from a blue space. Iâm fighting from blood-burgundy and burnt orange, and it was just really fun, and it was really freeing and I could trust my body, trusted the team around me to let me try. If you talk to [director Jonathan Eusebio], heâll tell you I was always like, âCan I do more? Can I kick my legs more?ââ
Love Hurts will kick into theaters on Friday, Feb. 7, just in time for Valentineâs Day.