Tony and Emmy Award winner Lillias White, currently receiving raves for her starring role in the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown on Broadway, is internationally recognized for her work on stage and screen. Her performance in the Broadway musical The Life earned her a Tony Award.

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Described by The New York Times as a “one-of-a-kind performer who combines the sass of a classic blues mama with the skill of a Broadway star,” Lillias White is world-renowned for her “glorious” voice and “slightly superhuman” ability to communicate the heart of a song (The New York Times). She is currently starring as Hermes in Hadestown on Broadway.

 

Her performance in Cy Coleman’s Broadway musical, The Life, won her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She was nominated for a second Tony Award for her brilliant work in Fela! Additional Broadway credits include Barnum, Dreamgirls, Cats, Carrie, Once on This Island, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Chicago. Other Off-Broadway and Regional Credits include The Public Theater’s Romance in Hard Times, for which she won the Obie Award; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (directed by Phylicia Rashad), for which she won the NAACP Award; Tariq Trotter’s Black No More; and the Carnegie Hall Concert version of South Pacific, starring Reba McEntire, which was also broadcast on PBS’ Great Performances.

 

 

 

In addition to receiving Broadway acclaim, Lillias is internationally recognized for her TV and film work. Lillias received the Daytime Emmy Award for her role as Lillian Edwards for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series on Sesame Street in 1992 and is beloved by audiences around the world for voicing the lead muse Calliope in Disney’s animated feature Hercules. Film credits include Pieces of April (starring Katie Holmes) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (starring Jim Carrey). Recent TV credits include the Baz Luhrmann-directed NETFLIX series The Get Down, as well as Russian Doll and Search Party. She has appeared in cabarets and concert halls around the world, including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

 

 

She can be heard on several Broadway cast albums, in addition to her critically acclaimed albums Get Yourself Some Happy! and From Brooklyn to Broadway.