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LaChanze
LaChanze at the 2022 Tony Awards
Born	Rhonda LaChanze Sapp (1961-12-16) December 16, 1961 (age 63) St. Augustine, Florida, U.S
Other names	LaChanze Sapp, La Chanze Sapp-Gooding, R. Lachanze Sapp
Occupation(s)	Actress, singer, dancer
Years active	1986–present
Spouses	Calvin J. Gooding ​ ​(m. 1998; died 2001)​ Derek Fordjour ​ ​(m. 2005; div. 2014)​
Children	2, including Celia Rose Gooding
Website	mslachanze.com

LaChanze Sapp-Gooding, known professionally as LaChanze (/ləˈʃɑːnz/; born December 16, 1961), is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role as Celie Harris Johnson in The Color Purple. LaChanze has subsequently received 3 more Tony Awards for co-producing Kimberly Akimbo, Topdog/Underdog, and The Outsiders.

Early life and education

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Born in St. Augustine, Florida, to Walter and Rosalie Sapp, her stage name "LaChanze" (Creole: the charmed one) is taken from her grandmother. After moving to Connecticut, her childhood love of singing and dancing caused her mother to enroll her in the Bowen Peters Cultural Arts Center in New Haven. There she discovered her love for performing. At Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport, LaChanze made her debut as Lola in the school production of Damn Yankees.

After high school, LaChanze studied drama at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, before transferring to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she studied Theater and Dance.

Career

Her first summer job was as a tap dancer in the ensemble of Uptown... It's Hot! at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The show opened on Broadway in January 1986, where LaChanze began her professional career in the theater.

LaChanze played the role of Ti Moune in the Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical Once on This Island in 1990 and received nominations for the Tony Award as Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical and Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. In December 1998, she joined the cast of the Ahrens and Flaherty and Terrence McNally Broadway musical Ragtime, replacing Audra McDonald in the role of "Sarah." She played the role of Viveca in the Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway production of the musical The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, which opened in June 2000. She received a Drama Desk nomination, Actress (Musical), for her performance. LaChanze participated in an Actors Fund of America benefit concert of Funny Girl, with many performers portraying the character of Fanny Brice, in September 2002.

In 2005 she played a runaway slave in the Ahrens and Flaherty musical Dessa Rose. The musical opened Off-Broadway at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center in March 2005. LaChanze received an Obie Award for Performance for Dessa Rose. LaChanze appeared as Celie Harris Johnson in the Broadway musical The Color Purple, from its opening in 2005 to November 2006. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for this performance.

In September 2008 she participated in the Boston Pops concert, Handel's Messiah Rocks at Emerson College. The performance was filmed by Public Broadcasting Service. She was in the Off-Broadway production of Inked Baby, written by Christina Anderson, which opened in March 2009 at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater. In June and July 2009, she played the role of Glinda in the City Center Encores! staged Summer Stars concert production of The Wiz.

She published her first picture book, Little Diva, in 2010. She was in the Broadway production of If/Then in 2014, starring as Kate. In 2018, she appeared in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway, playing Diva Donna/Mary Gaines, for which she received a Tony Award nomination. In 2019 she appeared in A Christmas Carol on Broadway, starring as the Ghost of Christmas Present.

In January 2022, LaChanze took a star turn on Broadway in Trouble in Mind, written by Alice Childress in 1955. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Wiletta Mayer.

In 2022, LaChanze began her career as a Broadway producer. She produced Topdog/Underdog with David Stone, Rashad V. Chambers, Marc Platt, Debra Martin Chase, and the Shubert Organization. She also produced Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway with David Stone, Aaron Glick, Patrick Catullo and James L. Nederlander. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play as a producer for Kimberly Akimbo and Topdog/Underdog on May 2, 2023. She was announced as a winner for both shows during the Tony Awards telecast on June 11, 2023.

In 2022, she launched Tima Productions with friend and former Ragtime castmate Marylee Fairbanks. Together they co-produced The Outsiders, for which she won another Tony Award for Best Musical. In 2024 she launched a multimedia company called LC Productions.

Personal life

While LaChanze was eight months pregnant with her second child, Zaya, her husband, securities trader Calvin Gooding, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was working at Cantor Fitzgerald in Tower One of the World Trade Center.

On September 6, 2002, she sang the National Anthem at a joint meeting of Congress in Federal Hall National Memorial, the first meeting of Congress in New York since 1790. She sang "Amazing Grace" at the dedication of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on May 15, 2014, dedicating her performance to her late husband.

LaChanze remarried in 2005 to Derek Fordjour and divorced him in 2014. The divorce was finalized on March 27, 2014, in Westchester County.

In 2019, LaChanze and the elder of her two children, Celia Rose Gooding, simultaneously appeared on Broadway, with LaChanze starring in A Christmas Carol and Gooding starring in Jagged Little Pill. The two repeated the rare event of mother and child starring in simultaneous Broadway shows, following Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher in 1983.

Acting credits

Sources: The New York Times; TCM

Film

Television

Theatre

Video games

Discography

• Once On This Island (Original Broadway Cast Recording), 1990
• Disney's Princess Favorites, featured artist, 2002
• Dessa Rose (off-Broadway Cast Recording), 2005
• The Color Purple (Original Broadway Cast Recording), 2006
• Disney Collection 1, featured artist, 2006
• The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Studio Cast Recording), 2007
• Handel's Messiah Rocks: A Joyful Noise, featured artist, 2009
• Nice Fighting You: A 30th Anniversary Celebration Live at 54 Below, featured on four songs, 2014
• If/Then (Original Broadway Cast Recording), 2014
• Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording), 2018

Concerts

• September 6, 2002 - Federal Hall National Memorial
• 2008 - Handel's Messiah Rocks, Emerson College
• Dec 1 & 2, 2008 - Joe's Pub
• December 5, 2010 - Playhouse Square Center
• December 16, 2012 - Birdland
• May 15, 2014 - National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• February 13, 2015 - Kennedy Center
• 2016/17 - Feeling Good Tour

Accolades

References

1. Gioia, Michael (August 4, 2013). "Anthony Rapp Will Join Tony Winners Idina Menzel and LaChanze in Broadway-Bound Musical If/Then". Playbill. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013.
2. "LaChanze". Oprah.com. Archived from the original on April 29, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
3. "'I Added a New Hyphen!' LaChanze Is Now a Two-Time Tony-Winning Producer". Playbill. June 12, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
4. "Uptown...It's Hot". ibdb.com. Retrieved March 19, 2016.
5. "LaChanze Career". masterworksbroadway.com. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
6. "Listing, see Awards". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
7. Lefkowitz, David; Viagas, Robert; Ehren, Christine (December 18, 1998). "Bway's Ragtime To Get All-New Leads, Incl. Rubinstein, Alton White & LaChanze". playbill.com. Archived from the original on April 3, 2012.
8. "Listing". lortel.org. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
9. Jones, Kenneth; Simonson, Robert (May 20, 2001). "Drama Desk Winners Include Producers, Proof and Mnemonic". playbill.com. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012.
10. Simonson, Robert (September 17, 2002). "More Fannys: LaChanze, Kayden, Murney Join Funny Girl Concert". playbill.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
11. Simonson, Robert. "LaChanze and Rachel York Begin Previews in 'Dessa Rose' at Mitzi Newhouse, Feb. 17" Archived December 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine February 17, 2005
12. "Search 2005" Archived May 30, 2013, at the Wayback Machine villagevoice.com, accessed August 29, 2013
13. Simonson, Robert. "Shanley, Hughes, Culkin, Marvel, O'Connell Among 2005 Obie Winners" Archived December 12, 2013, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 16, 2005
14. Hernandez, Ernio. "LaChanze Confirmed as Leading Lady of 'Color Purple' Musical; Broadway Cast Announced" playbill.com, September 7, 2005
15. Hernandez, Ernio. "Tony Winner LaChanze to End Her Run in Broadway's 'The Color Purple' Nov. 5" playbill.com, October 18, 2006
16. Gans, Andrew. PBS to Film LaChanze, Spencer and Boston Pops in Handel's Messiah Rocks" Archived October 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, September 5, 2008
17. Jones, Kenneth. " 'Inked Baby', Starring LaChanze, Opens March 23 in NYC" Archived October 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, March 23, 2009
18. Gans, Andrew; Hetrick, Adam (May 7, 2009). "Jones, LaChanze, Arnold, Lewis, Henry, and More Will Join Ashanti in The Wiz". playbill.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2013.
19. "'Trouble in Mind' Broadway Review: LaChanze Leads Alice Childress Play to Overdue Triumph". November 19, 2021.
20. "'Topdog/Underdog' Returning to Broadway with Corey Hawkins & Yahya Abdul-Mateen II". June 14, 2022.
21. "Acclaimed off Broadway Musical 'Kimberly Akimbo' Plans Move to Broadway with Original Cast". February 25, 2022.
22. "Tony Awards Winners: 'Kimberly Akimbo' Takes Best Musical; 'Leopoldstadt' Named Best Play – Complete List". June 12, 2023.
23. Adri Pray (August 2, 2024). "Marylee Fairbanks, co-producer of award-winning 'The Outsiders,' is a multifaceted force". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
24. "5 minutes with a Tony nominee: Producers LaChanze and Jamie Forshaw". Broadway News. June 13, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
25. Culwell-Block, Logan (June 16, 2024). "The Outsiders Wins Best Musical at the 2024 Tony Awards". Playbill.
26. Huston, Caitlin (May 29, 2024). "LaChanze Launches Production Company for Theater and More". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
27. Gordon, Meryl. "The Lives Left Behind" New York Magazine, accessed March 19, 2016
28. "Joint Meeting of Congress". C-SPAN. Retrieved February 9, 2024.
29. Lehrer, Sari. "Weddings" New York Magazine, Summer 2006, retrieved August 29, 2013
30. Gioia, Michael. "My If/Then Moment": LaChanze Recounts the Divine Intervention Leading Her to the 9/11 Memorial" June 18, 2014
31. "Video: LaChanze & Celia Rose Gooding Are the First Mother/Daughter Duo On Broadway". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
32. Haun, Harry (April 1, 2020). "From the Archives: When Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher Simultaneously Starred on Broadway". Playbill. Retrieved August 23, 2023. Now that Raquel Welch has left Woman of the Year, the part has passed along—with Einstein-like logic—to the ever-peppy Debbie Reynolds, who arrived in that title role last month almost by divine right. … her daughter, Carrie Fisher, is appearing on the other side of Broadway, at the Music Box in Agnes of God, which, like her mom's, is a Tony-winning role. … 'The two of us on Broadway at the same time—it's a whole new thought for me,' Debbie admits.
33. "Agnes of God – Broadway Play – Original". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved August 23, 2023. Replacements: Carrie Fisher; Agnes; Jan 03, 1983 - Apr 10, 1983
34. "Woman of the Year – Broadway Musical – Original". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved August 23, 2023. Replacements: Debbie Reynolds; Tess Harding; Feb 13, 1983 - Mar 13, 1983
35. Filmography The New York Times, accessed August 29, 2013
36. Filmography tcm.com, accessed August 29, 2013
37. "'The Secret Life Of Bees' Takes On A 2nd Life As Musical Theater". NPR.org. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
38. "2009-2010 Emmy Winners: Chicago/Midwest Chapter" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. p. 7. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
39. Meyer, Dan (October 15, 2019). "The Secret Life of Bees, Much Ado About Nothing Lead 2019 AUDELCO's VIV Award Nominations". Playbill. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
40. "2020 Lucille Lortel Awards Nominations". Lortel Award. Archived from the original on October 19, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
41. "'The Inheritance,' 'Strange Loop,' 'Moulin Rouge' Among Drama Desk Award Winners". Variety. June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
42. Mcphee, Ryan (June 20, 2020). "Here Are the Winners of Broadway Black's Inaugural Antonyo Awards". Playbill. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
43. "71st Outer Critics Circle Awards". Outer Critics Circle Awards. Retrieved May 17, 2022.

External links

• LaChanze at the Internet Broadway Database
• LaChanze at IMDb 
• LaChanze at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• LaChanze - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org

• 1961 births
• 20th-century African-American actresses
• 20th-century American actresses
• 21st-century African-American actresses
• 21st-century American actresses
• Actresses from Connecticut
• Actresses from Florida
• 20th-century African-American women singers
• 20th-century American women singers
• 20th-century American singers
• American women singers
• American musical theatre actresses
• Living people
• Morgan State University alumni
• People from St. Augustine, Florida
• Theatre World Award winners
• Tony Award winners
• University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni
• 21st-century African-American people