The Harlem-born daughter of a chorus dancer at the Cotton Club and a singer in the Hall Johnson choir, Leslie Uggams began performing on television at the age of six; at seven, she was opening for Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald at the Apollo Theater. It wasn’t until the ripe old age of 23 that she made her Broadway debut, winning the 1968 Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical for “Hallelujah Baby!” She was nominated for a Tony for her first role in a non-musical play on

Broadway, the 2001 production of August Wilson’s “King Hedley II”.

Uggams is a screen star, probably still best known as Kizzy in the 1977 television series Alex Haley’s Roots, a recording artist with ten solo albums, a cabaret and concert singer. But we’re focusing here just on her theater career

Check out the rest of the Broadway Alphabet series

Still, it’s hard to resist this video of Leslie Uggams at age 10 on Your Show of Shows, singing “You’re Too Tall and I’m Too Small” with The Billy Williams Quartet.

Leslie Uggams made her big Broadway debut in “Hallelujah Baby1” for which she won a Tony Award

Uggams portrayed Cleopatra opposite Richard Kiley in this little-known 1968 musical by Ervin M Drake based on Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra

A musical revue of some of the best blues songs ever written

A musical revue of songs from musicals by Jerry Herman,

Uggams starred as Reno Sweeney in the replacement cast of Anything Goes, 1989

Uggams originated the role of Ruby in the Broadway production of King Hedley III in 2001

Uggams was in the replacement cast as Muzzy Van Hossmere in Thoroughly Modern Millie revival, 2003

Uggams played opposite James Earl Jones in On Golden Pond , a play by Ernest Thompson, in 2005

Hallelujah Baby! 1968

Uggams won a Tony for portraying a maid who dreams of becoming an entertainer in this musical with music by Jule Styne; Lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden; book by Arthur Laurents.

Blues in the Night, 1982

Few videos exist of Uggams’ actual performances on Broadway. These videos are not from the Broadway musical, but they are two of the songs she sang in it. The first, I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues
(music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Ted Koehler),the second the title song music by Harold Arlen; lyrics by Johnny Mercer)

Jerrys Girls, 1985

Leslie Uggams in a scene from the Broadway production of the musical “Jerry’s Girls”.

Actresses Carol Channing (2L) & Leslie Uggams (3R) w. cast in a scene fr. the National tour of the musical revue “Jerry’s Girls”.

A revue of songs from the musicals by composer Jerry Herman

Here’s a video of Uggams singing “If He Walked Into My Life” from Mame, which has the added advantage of presenting a photo gallery of the performer through the years.

“I Am What I Am” from La Cage Aux Folles, a showstopper in the revue

Anything Goes, 1988

“I get a kick out of you,” again sung by Uggams but this video is not from the Broadway musical

Thoroughly Modern Millie, 2002

Off Broadway and Beyond

The First Breeze of Summer, 2008 revival

Leslie Uggams as Madame Armati the medium in an online reading of Blithe Spirits this year

from “Uptown, Downtown,” her one-woman autobiographical musical

Leslie Uggams singing Sondheim, because…why not?