Exclusive: What Did Whitney Leavitt Have to Sacrifice to Secure Her First Broadway Role in Chicago During Her Dancing With the Stars Journey?

Whitney Leavitt’s dancing days aren’t behind her yet.

Amid the hubbub of the Dancing with the Stars season finale and the upcoming Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion on Dec. 4, Leavitt has had a busy last few weeks.

And it’s about to get even busier with the news that the MomToker is making her Broadway debut in the musical Chicago in February 2026.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE at the L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth 2025 event on Dec. 2, the MomToker breaks down just exactly how her Broadway stint came to be, revealing that it happened moments after her shocking exit from DWTS.

The influencer and mom of three competed on season 34 of Dancing with the Stars alongside pro partner Mark Ballas, and was eliminated during the Semi-Finals, despite having consistently scored at the top of the leaderboard throughout the preceding weeks of competition.

“Right after I got eliminated, it was not the next day, the day after they wanted me to fly out to [N.Y.C.],” she reveals, noting that she did an in-person audition for the musical.

“That was like the final part that I needed to do because I’ve been sending them tapes and vocals and my acting, everything that they needed,” she continues. “So I did the in-person audition and then literally the next day they told me I got the part, so I was very, very grateful.”

“You have like exciting news, and you just wanna shout it to the rooftops,” she says. “It just feels surreal. That’s the best word I can think of — just surreal.”

“I feel like everything that I’ve been manifesting feels more within reach,” she tells PEOPLE. “Like I can see it and it’s there and I’m reaching it and I’m going after it and I’m just so grateful.”

During a previous interview with Derek Hough for Extra, Leavitt confirmed that Chicago approached her about the role following Week 4 of DWTS, after she and Ballas did a show-stopping performance to Hamilton.

Leavitt’s run in Chicago begins performances Feb. 2, 2026, at the Ambassador Theatre in New York City for a six-week limited engagement through March 15, 2026.

Her appearance in the musical will be Leavitt’s first professional theater role.

The Utah-based mom of three and social media personality is no stranger to the show either. On DWTS, she and Ballas performed an Argentine Tango to “Cell Block Tango,” one of the show’s most iconic numbers.

The pair’s elimination from Dancing with the Stars didn’t stop them from showcasing their freestyle routine.

At the end of the duo’s recent appearance on Call Her Daddy on Nov. 26, host Alex Cooper asked if they wanted to perform what would have been their final dance had they made it to the DWTS finale, which aired the night prior to the podcast episode.

Without hesitation, Ballas, 39, responded, “It would be a pleasure.”

The freestyle to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — along with snippets of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ theme song — seemingly responded to all the hate the pair received during their time on the competition series’ 34th season, showing the reality star, fighting off phones in her face as they watched her fall on her face before Ballas picked her back up and they kissed their reflections in a mirror.