Jan From The Office To Play Roxie Hart

Melora Hardin, best known as Steve Carell's boss-cum-love interest Jan on NBC's The Office, will soon hang up her business attire for Roxie Hart's fishnets when she joins the cast of Chicago for a seven-week run beginning December 29. Hardin's musical turn is takes her back to her roots: the actress has recorded two albums and previously played Fantine in the Hollywood Bowl's Les Miserables in Concert last summer. Hardin, who also has a recurring role on TV's Monk, told the AP she was jazzed to be making her Broadway debut: "I have been dancing all my life, since I was 5 . . . In a way, I was made for musicals. But I have been working so much in film and television that I never really had a chance to do them."

It's an auspicious time for the crowd-pleasing show, as Chicago today celebrates its 12^th anniversary as well as its 5,000^th performance. Broadway's longest-running musical revival, Chicago has long been the destination for actors looking to display their singing-and-dancing chops; other celebrity Roxies have included Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, and Ashlee Simpson, who tackled the role on London's West End in 2006. Here's hoping Hardin does Bebe Neuwirth proud.