An Evening with Leslie Uggams

Leslie Uggams is a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer whose career has brought her from Harlem (Uptown) to Broadway (Downtown), the big screen (Skyjacked) to television ("The Leslie Uggams Show"). Perhaps best known for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series "Alex Haley's Roots" (Critics Choice Award, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), Leslie has performed to critical and popular acclaim ever since her first professional appearances at the age of nine at New York's famed Apollo Theater. There she opened for such musical legends as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dinah Washington. Now, after six decades on stage and screen, Leslie is a legend in her own right. 

 

From New York to Boston and Los Angeles, critics have raved, calling Leslie "dazzling," "indefatigable," and "delectable!" On Broadway, she made her stunning musical theater debut starring in Hallelujah, Baby! earning both Tony and Theater World awards. She has starred on Broadway in Blues in the Night,Her First Roman with Richard Kiley, Jerry's Girls, Anything Goes at the Lincoln Center Theatre, King Headley II with Brian Stokes Mitchell (Tony Award nomination), Thoroughly Modern Millie, and On Golden Pond opposite James Earl Jones. Recent television appearances include "Memphis Beat;" "NYC 22;" "The Good Wife;" and an upcoming three-episode arc on "Nurse Jackie." 

 

Leslie brings her new cabaret show Classic Uggams to Dayton's Victoria Theatre as a Major Teaching Artist through Wright State University's Musical Theatre Initiative where she will work with young artists and present them on our stage.