Chani Wereley
Chani Wereley
 

hey. welcome.

If you’re here, that means you want to know a little about me.

My name is Chani Wereley! I am a queer artist human born and raised in Washington, D.C., and my pronouns are she/they.

I went to college for aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan! While I was there, I did a production of Rent with MUSKET, and that was the beginning of the end of my rocket scientist career. I transferred to Catholic University, where I received my BM in Musical Theatre, and the rest is history.

I have two cats I accidentally named after a TikTok trend. (Emma + Cleo!)

I have had the chance to work alongside incredible humans on new works, old classics, and everything in between. I am incredibly lucky.

In 2023, I had the pleasure of interviewing with Thomas Floyd of The Washington Post for a feature in their weekend cover story on Sondheim and his legacy!

I was interviewed alongside Montego Glover, John Kalbfleisch, Ethan Heard, John Weidman, and Thomas Kail. Truly incredible company.

I’m a native Washingtonian, so being quoted in the Post was VERY COOL!

“The 2018 Catholic University graduate admits that she was embarrassingly unfamiliar with Sondheim until she went to college, became a musical theater major and did a deep dive into his songbook. Now, as the only actor appearing in all three of Signature’s Sondheim shows this season, the performer finds herself enrolled in a crash course in Sondheim.”
— Thomas Floyd, The Washington Post
“It’s that really beautiful symphonic combination of lyrics and music that come together to tweak you here [gestures toward her head] and also tweak you right here [gestures toward her heart]. I think as long as his shows are being produced, people will see them.”
— Me, in the Washington Post!! If you can believe!!

 currently

Soft Power at Signature Theatre as Betsy Ross/others, and the Hillary Clinton u/s.

Photo by Daniel Rader

A visionary musical fantasia by Tony Award winners David Henry Hwang (Yellow Face, M. Butterfly) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Kimberly Akimbo).

After the 2016 election, when a Chinese American playwright is attacked by an unknown assailant, he hallucinates a Golden Age musical comedy about a Chinese theater producer and Hillary Clinton falling in love. Hilarious and biting, this political satire dares to ask: Does American Democracy still work? And is it worth believing in?

An exhilarating ride through political absurdity with a faceoff between Chinese and American exceptionalism, Soft Power makes an electric debut in the nation’s capital.

“Subversive as well as funny, touching and thoroughly entertaining… You may never look at an American musical the same way again.” – Variety

“Soft Power features a uniformly strong and versatile ensemble who appear in numerous roles – dancing with french fries; toting red, white and blue guns in the Oval Office; or as array of wacky Times Square regulars...the cast and creative team are at the top of their games.”
— Broadway World
“ Numbers such as “Good Guy with a Gun” and “I’m With Her,” for example, are just witty, barbed, and laugh-out-loud funny enough to catapult the audience into a good time while also spurring some serious reflection on the political state of America in the 21st century.”
— MD Theatre Guide
“Chani rapping was my favorite part.”
— Alex de Bard
“Chani rapped tonight! Chance the Rapper meet Chancé the Rapper!”
— Chani's Mom, in their family groupchat
“You want me to rap??”
— Chani, on the first day of rehearsal, to Ethan J Heard

Photo by Daniel Rader

recently

Little Shop of Horrors at Ford’s Theatre as Audrey.

Little Shop of Horrors is a non-stop blast, sci-fi horror comedy, love story and doo-wop and rock musical that has become one of the most treasured pieces of American musical theatre.

With music by Alan Menken and lyrics and book by Howard Ashman, Little Shop pays homage to doo-wop and Motown recordings. The story follows a luckless florist shop worker, Seymour, who raises a wisecracking carnivorous plant – Audrey II – that must feed on human blood. He delights in the fame and fortune that his ever-growing plant attracts, while trying to show his co-worker Audrey that she is the girl of his dreams.

As Seymour discovers Audrey II’s out-of-this-world origins and intent toward world domination, he learns the lesson: “Don’t feed the plants!”

“Wereley is riveting when she sings, her voice full and rich, and she’s completely persuasive as someone with poignantly, exactingly small dreams.”
— Washington Post
“Chani Wereley shows spunk and smarts as Audrey and earns well-deserved ovations for her clear and lovely ballads.”
— Broadway World
“Wereley illuminates Audrey’s soft heart and hard edges eloquently in her yearning “Somewhere That’s Green,” and delivers consistently in her approach to both the score and the comedy. She captures Audrey’s poignant duality, written into the music, as an also meek, insecure victim of abuse incongruously possessed of a powerhouse singing voice that reveals the monumental strength she truly contains.”
— Metro Weekly

 

next up

A super special secret!