Tony and Emmy winner Lillias White will replace LaChanze in two Trust Cabaret Series concerts April 16.
LaChanze vacated the spot to prepare for her lead role in “The Donna Summer Musical,” which begins Broadway previews March 28.
After her Broadway debut in “Barnum” in 1981, Ms. White played Effie in the 1987 revival of “Dreamgirls.” She also appeared on Broadway in “Cats,” “Carrie,” “Once on This Island,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Chicago” and “Fela!” For her 1997 role as Sonja in Cy Coleman’s “The Life,” she earned Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards as a best featured actress in a musical. Her one-woman concert is about the New Yorker’s journey “From Brooklyn to Broadway.”
Ms. White won her Daytime Emmy in children’s programming for her portrayal of Rhonda the pink singing squirrel on “Sesame Street.”
Ms. White’s concert performances have taken her from the Kennedy Center to Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall. In 2014, she appeared off-Broadway in the world premiere of “While I Yet Live,” the semiautobiographical play by Billy Porter about a young man’s coming of age in Pittsburgh.
Ticket holders to the LaChanze concert will be able to use their original tickets for the 7 and 9:30 p.m. performances at the Cabaret at Theater Square, Downtown. For tickets and details, 412-456-6666 or trustarts.org.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: March 16, 2018, 5:48 p.m.
