Happy Birthday to Tony-winning performer LaChanze, born Rhonda Sapp on Dec. 16, 1961, in St. Augustine, Fla. After graduating from University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she joined the ensemble of Uptown … It’s Hot! during out-of-town tryouts, making her Broadway debut with the revue in 1986. She returned to Broadway the following year in the ensemble of the Dreamgirls revival. Her breakthrough came in 1990, when she originated the role of Ti Moune in the Off-Broadway premiere of Once on This Island, which she followed to Broadway, winning a Theatre World Award and earning her first Tony and Drama Desk nominations. Below is the cast of Once on This Island at the 1991 Tonys.
She next appeared on Broadway as Marta in the 1995 revival of Company, then in Disney’s 1997 animated film Hercules and its subsequent TV series as Terpsichore. LaChanze ended the decade on Broadway, replacing Audra McDonald as Sarah in Ragtime. In 2000, she originated the title role of the Off-Broadway musical The Bubbly Black Girls Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, then the title role of the 2005 Off-Broadway musical Dessa Rose, for which she won an Obie and earned a Drama Desk nomination. At the end of 2005, she originated the role of Celie in the Broadway premiere of The Color Purple, winning the Tony for best actress. Below is the cast of The Color Purple at the 2006 Tonys.
In the past decade, LaChanze has appeared in the Broadway musicals If/Then (2014) and Summer (2018), as one of its three Donnas, for which she earned her third Tony and fourth Drama Desk nominations. In 2019, she portrayed the eldest beekeeping sister in the Off-Broadway musical The Secret Life of Bees, winning an Outer Critics Award and earning Lortel and Drama Desk nominations. Below are the three Donnas of Summer performing “Last Dance” at the 2018 Tonys.