Getting to Know Kelli O’Hara Through Her Greatest Stage Performances

This October, Broadway treasure Kelli O’Hara is heading from the stage to the big screen—or at least, one of her stage performances is. O’Hara stars in Fallen Angels, the sparkling, dizzying, and deliciously potent Noël Coward comedy, coming to movie theatres this month, giving audiences everywhere another chance to see one of Broadway’s most celebrated leading ladies in action.

Fallen Angels, Noël Coward’s champagne-fresh comedy of bad manners is coming to the big screen October 22 & 25. Get your tickets today!

Of course, Fallen Angels is just the latest in a long line of memorable performances from the Tony winner. Over the past two decades, O’Hara has tackled everything from Golden Age classics to brand-new musicals, moving effortlessly between Broadway, concert halls, and the Metropolitan Opera along the way. In celebration of her latest trip to the big screen, we're looking back at just some of the stage roles that have made Kelli O’Hara one of the defining musical theatre performers of her generation.

Sweet Smell of Success

Before she was Broadway's go-to leading lady, O'Hara was steadily making her way through the ranks. One important stop came in 2002, when she appeared in Sweet Smell of Success, the Marvin Hamlisch-Craig Carnelia-John Guare musical led by John Lithgow and Brian d'Arcy James. O'Hara played Susan, the younger sister of Lithgow's J.J. Hunsecker, and the role gave Broadway audiences an early glimpse of the performer who would soon become one of the theatre's most celebrated sopranos.

The Light in the Piazza

For many Broadway fans, this is where the Kelli O'Hara story really takes off. O'Hara stepped into the spotlight as Clara Johnson in Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas' The Light in the Piazza. The musical began one of the most important artistic partnerships of her career—one that would come full circle nearly two decades later.

The Pajama Game

One year after Piazza, O'Hara traded the romance of Florence for the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. Starring opposite Harry Connick Jr. in the 2006 revival of The Pajama Game, O'Hara got to show off a breezier, more playful side as Babe Williams. The role let her tackle classics like “I'm Not at All in Love” and “There Once Was a Man” while proving that her talents extended well beyond the sweeping romantic material that had made Piazza such a showcase.

South Pacific

If Clara showed Broadway what O'Hara's voice could do, Nellie Forbush showed just how naturally she could inhabit the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon. Opposite Paulo Szot's Emile de Becque, O'Hara moved from the bubbly optimism of “A Cockeyed Optimist” and “A Wonderful Guy” to the much more complicated emotional territory waiting for Nellie later in the musical. The performance earned O'Hara another Tony nomination and helped establish her as one of Broadway's foremost interpreters of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Nice Work If You Can Get It

In 2012's Nice Work If You Can Get It, O'Hara starred opposite Matthew Broderick as bootlegger Billie Bendix, singing her way through a treasure trove of George and Ira Gershwin songs. The musical allowed O'Hara to tap into her considerable comedic chops while still delivering the kind of vocals audiences had come to expect. It was another reminder that while she might possess one of Broadway's great legit voices, she could be very funny, too.

The Bridges of Madison County

Sometimes a show doesn't need a long Broadway run to leave a long Broadway afterlife. Jason Robert Brown's The Bridges of Madison County gave O'Hara one of her most beloved roles as Francesca Johnson, opposite Steven Pasquale's Robert Kincaid. Songs like “To Build a Home” and “Almost Real” allowed her to combine vocal fireworks with the quiet ache that has always been one of her greatest strengths as an actor.

The King and I

Then came Anna. O'Hara returned to Rodgers and Hammerstein in Lincoln Center Theater's 2015 revival of The King and I, starring opposite Ken Watanabe. After five previous nominations, the performance finally earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. And really, what better victory lap than sweeping across the stage during “Shall We Dance?”

The Hours

Broadway isn't the only New York stage where O'Hara has made her mark. In 2022, she joined Renée Fleming and Joyce DiDonato at the Metropolitan Opera for the world premiere of Kevin Puts' The Hours, based on Michael Cunningham's novel and the film that followed. O'Hara took on the role of Laura Brown, joining three of the world's great voices in a work that intertwines the stories of three women across different eras. For O'Hara, the production represented another chapter in a relationship with the Met that had already included appearances in The Merry Widow and Così fan tutte. 

Days of Wine and Roses

Almost twenty years after The Light in the Piazza, O'Hara reunited with Adam Guettel for a very different kind of musical. As Kirsten Arnesen in Days of Wine and Roses, she traded romantic Italian vistas for an intimate story about love and alcoholism. The score still demanded everything audiences expect from a Guettel/O'Hara collaboration, but the performance revealed a rawer, darker side of an actress whose career had already spanned decades.

Fallen Angels

And that brings us to O'Hara's latest stage outing, Fallen Angels. Noël Coward's sparkling comedy gives her another opportunity to flex the comedic muscles that have popped up throughout her career, this time alongside Rose Byrne. Now, audiences beyond the theatre will get to join in the fun. Fallen Angels is coming to movie theatres this October, bringing O'Hara's latest onstage performance to the big screen and giving fans another chance to see why, more than two decades into her career, she remains one of the stage's most exciting leading ladies.

 Fallen Angels, Noël Coward’s champagne-fresh comedy of bad manners is coming to the big screen October 22 & 25.