Lillias White
Encyclopedia
Lillias White is an American
singer and actress.
The Brooklyn
, New York
native made her Broadway debut
in Barnum
in 1981. She understudied the role of Effie in the original 1981 production of Dreamgirls and played the part in the 1987 revival. White has appeared on Broadway in Cats
as Grizabella, Rock'N'Roll! The First 5000 Years, the ill-fated Carrie as the standby for Miss Gardner, Once on This Island
as Asaka, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
as Miss Jones (a role rewritten for Ms. White), Chicago
as Matron Mama Morton, and benefit concert versions of Funny Girl (in which she sang the role of Fanny Brice
), Hair
, and Dreamgirls , reprising her role as Effie, for which she won the Drama League Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Perhaps her most notable role was in Cy Coleman
's The Life
, for which she won the Tony
, Drama Desk
, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her portrayal of a world-weary, no-nonsense, streetwise hooker named Sonja. Her tour-de-force performance of "The Oldest Profession," a song in which Sonja bemoans the life of a prostitute, received a standing ovation nightly.
White's off-Broadway
credits include the Public Theater
production of the William Finn
musical Romance in Hard Times, for which she won the Obie Award
, Dinah Was, in which she portrayed the legendary blues
and jazz
singer Dinah Washington
, The Vagina Monologues
, and Crowns, for which she won the AUDELCO Award. Her national tours include Ain't Misbehavin' and The Wiz
.
White performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
in a concert of works by Leonard Bernstein
, Aaron Copland
, and George
and Ira Gershwin
celebrating the orchestra's 50th anniversary. She also has appeared in concert at the Kennedy Center
, Carnegie Hall
, and Lincoln Center and has toured internationally with her one-woman show From Brooklyn to Broadway. She is heard on the 1991 Madonna
recording "Rescue Me
". White later appeared on the PBS series Sesame Street
including the 1997 VHS release Elmo Says Boo!
.
White's television appearances include a regular role on Sesame Street
(for which she won an Emmy Award
), Law & Order
, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
, and NYPD Blue
. She performed the role of Bloody Mary in the PBS
Great Performances
presentation of South Pacific
. Her screen credits include voiceover work in Disney's
Hercules
and Anastasia
. Film credits include How the Grinch Stole Christmas
, Game 6
, Pieces of April
and Then She Found Me
.
Ms.White recently wrapped the Broadway musical Fela!
where she played one of the leading roles as Funmilayo. She received a 2010 Tony Award Nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, losing to Katie Finneran. Ms. White is currently on tour.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and actress.
The Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
native made her Broadway debut
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in Barnum
Barnum (musical)
Barnum is a musical with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart, and music by Cy Coleman. It is based on the life of showman P. T. Barnum, covering the period from 1835 through 1880 in America and major cities of the world where Barnum took his performing companies. The production...
in 1981. She understudied the role of Effie in the original 1981 production of Dreamgirls and played the part in the 1987 revival. White has appeared on Broadway in Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
as Grizabella, Rock'N'Roll! The First 5000 Years, the ill-fated Carrie as the standby for Miss Gardner, Once on This Island
Once On This Island
Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea...
as Asaka, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....
as Miss Jones (a role rewritten for Ms. White), Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
as Matron Mama Morton, and benefit concert versions of Funny Girl (in which she sang the role of Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
), Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
, and Dreamgirls , reprising her role as Effie, for which she won the Drama League Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Perhaps her most notable role was in Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
's The Life
The Life (musical)
The Life is a musical with a book by David Newman, Ira Gasman and Cy Coleman, music by Coleman, and lyrics by Gasman.Based on an original idea by Gasman, the show explores the underbelly of Times Square's 42nd Street, inhabited by pimps and prostitutes, druggies and dealers, and runaways and street...
, for which she won the Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
, Drama Desk
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her portrayal of a world-weary, no-nonsense, streetwise hooker named Sonja. Her tour-de-force performance of "The Oldest Profession," a song in which Sonja bemoans the life of a prostitute, received a standing ovation nightly.
White's off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
credits include the Public Theater
Public Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
production of the William Finn
William Finn
William Alan Finn is an American composer and lyricist of musicals. His musical Falsettos received the 1992 Tony Awards for Best Music and Lyrics and for Best Book.-Biography:...
musical Romance in Hard Times, for which she won the Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
, Dinah Was, in which she portrayed the legendary blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written by Eve Ensler which ran at the Off Broadway Westside Theatre after a limited run at AFRICA in 1996. Ensler originally starred in the production which was produced by David Stone, Nina Essman, Dan Markley, The Araca Group, Willa Shalit, Mike Skipper...
, and Crowns, for which she won the AUDELCO Award. Her national tours include Ain't Misbehavin' and The Wiz
The Wiz
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of African American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974 at the Morris A...
.
White performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Brooklyn Philharmonic
The Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, commonly known as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, is an American orchestra based in the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City...
in a concert of works by Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, and George
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
and Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
celebrating the orchestra's 50th anniversary. She also has appeared in concert at the Kennedy Center
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
, Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, and Lincoln Center and has toured internationally with her one-woman show From Brooklyn to Broadway. She is heard on the 1991 Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
recording "Rescue Me
Rescue Me (Madonna song)
"Rescue Me" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna. It was the second single to be released from her 1990 greatest hits compilation The Immaculate Collection on February 26, 1991 by Sire Records...
". White later appeared on the PBS series Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
including the 1997 VHS release Elmo Says Boo!
Elmo Says BOO!
Elmo Says BOO! is a 1997 Sesame Street direct-to-video special celebrating Halloween. Elmo visits The Count's castle to tell him funny scary jokes...
.
White's television appearances include a regular role on Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
(for which she won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
), Law & Order
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
, and NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
. She performed the role of Bloody Mary in the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
Great Performances
Great Performances
Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...
presentation of South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
. Her screen credits include voiceover work in Disney's
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
Hercules
Hercules (1997 film)
Hercules is a 1997 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fifth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker...
and Anastasia
Anastasia (1997 film)
Anastasia is a 1997 American animated musical film produced and directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. It was the first feature film to be released by Fox Animation Studios....
. Film credits include How the Grinch Stole Christmas
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (film)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, also known as Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas , is a 2000 comedy film from Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, based on the 1966 TV special which itself is based on 1957 book of the same name by Dr. Seuss...
, Game 6
Game 6 (film)
Game 6 is a 2005 American film directed by Michael Hoffman, first presented at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and released in the United States in 2006...
, Pieces of April
Pieces of April
Pieces of April is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.- Plot :...
and Then She Found Me
Then She Found Me
Then She Found Me is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Helen Hunt. The screenplay by Hunt, Alice Arlen, and Victor Levin is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Elinor Lipman...
.
Ms.White recently wrapped the Broadway musical Fela!
Fela!
Fela! is a musical with a book by Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis, based on music and lyrics by the late Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, with additional music by Aaron Johnson and Jordan Mclean and additional lyrics by Jim Lewis. It is based on events in the life of groundbreaking Nigerian composer and...
where she played one of the leading roles as Funmilayo. She received a 2010 Tony Award Nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, losing to Katie Finneran. Ms. White is currently on tour.