LaChanze

Described as volcanic and a spontaneous force of nature with the unfailing ability to leave audiences breathless, Tony and Emmy Award Winner, LaChanze, is hitting the Broadway stage in the highly anticipated production SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL as Diva Donna at the Lunt-Fontannne Theatre. Previews starts March 28 ahead of its opening night April 23. Told through the dramatic lens of her final concert, SUMMER presents the complexities and conflicts the famed songwriter and singer faced in her meteoric rise and descent. The show features a score with more than 20 of Summer’s classic hits including “Love to Love You, Baby,” “Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff.”

LaChanze is an accomplished and sought-after concert performer and has appeared in esteemed concert halls worldwide. Sharing her zest for all things life and happiness, she has taken her electric and highly praised Feeling Good tour right into her fans heart. Combined with her EP of the same name, LaChanze is on a mission to make the world feel good by giving her audiences a peek into her life through original songs and musical highlights from her storied career. Her upcoming memoir Feeling Good will be published by Scholastic.

With a long list of accolades to her name, she is among today’s most highly regarded performers. Hailed by the New York Times as “magnetic,” LaChanze theatre credits are vast, including The Color Purple (2006 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Lady in Musical), Once On This Island (nominations, Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle), Ragtime, Company, Uptown It’s Hot and If/Then. Some of her Off-Broadway credits include The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Drama Desk nomination), Dessa Rose (Obie Award), Inked Baby, Spunk, and From the Mississippi Delta.

The winsome Broadway star also dazzles in the land of television and film. Always ready to skillfully deliver her best, she has flex her acting muscles in the award-winning film The Help, Side Effects, Heartbreak Hotel, For Love or Money, Leap of Faith and My New Gun. On television, she has appeared in the award-winning HBO special The Night Of, Person of Interest, Law & Order: SVU, One Life to Live, Lucy, Sex and the City, One Life to Live, Hercules, The Cosby Show, The Cosby Mysteries, New York Undercover and Heartbreak Hotel. She has the honor of appearing in the PBS special and cast album of Handel’s Messiah Rocks: A Joyful Noise (for which she earned the covenant Emmy Award) for her performance.

Not one to rest on her laurels, LaChanze is the author of Little Diva(with illustrations by Brian Pinkey). Released in May 2010, Little Divaoffers a realistic and endearing view of a little girl’s dream of taking to the stage like her mother, a Broadway star.

LaChanze resides in New York with her two daughters.