Twelve Days of Christmas: Kandi Burruss

The holidays are upon us and BroadwayWorld is continuing our favorite annual tradition of celebrating the holiday season with a Twelve Days of Christmas countdown. This year we are featuring some of our favorite members of the 2025 Broadway scene to share their most cherished holiday songs, films, and performances. This year's countdown is sponsored by The Artist, streaming now on the Network.

In the twilight of the Gilded Age an eccentric, failing tycoon (Mandy Patinkin) and his brilliant wife (Janet McTeer) host an ensemble of the era's biggest celebrities including Thomas Edison, Edgar Degas and Evelyn Nesbit. The gathering soon turns deadly. The Artist also stars Danny Huston, Patti LuPone, Hank Azaria, Clark Gregg, Zachary Quinto and more. Check out the series the New York Times calls "....Operatic in its passions and power plays."

The Stephen Sondheim Theatre stage is getting kandi koated this holiday season. The singer, songwriter, producer, and television icon Kandi Burruss just joined the Broadway cast of & Juliet. Kandi took a break from rehearsals to tell us about the music that puts her in the holiday spirit.

"Not now, but when I was younger, I was in the group Xscape and we were on So So Def's 12 Soulful Nights of Christmas album. And so that's definitely a win! Definitely on my list," she told BroadwayWorld. "But two of my favorite Christmas songs are funny songs. There is a rap group called 95 South. They have this on 'What You Want for Christmas?' I love that song. Christmas is not started until I play it! And my other one is 'Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.'" 

Earning acclaim as a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, Kandi Burruss has become even more recognized as an Emmy-nominated television icon, after a dozen years on Bravo’s #1-rated The Real Housewives of Atlanta and still seen in a recurring role on the popular Showtime drama The Chi. As a Tony-nominated producer, she has also spent the last several years establishing her bona fides on Broadway, working to bring compelling Black narratives to the stage, while honing her passions as an entrepreneur and humanitarian.

Named to Ebony’s Power 100 list and Variety’s 40 Most Powerful Women on Reality TV, Kandi Burruss has seen her popularity skyrocket over the past dozen years, currently reaching 10.7 million Instagram followers. In addition to The Real Housewives of Atlanta and The Chi, she has guest starred on the Hulu legal drama Reasonable Doubt and in the Amazon Prime Original comedy film The Underdoggs, starring Snoop Dogg, in the wake of receiving a 2023 Emmy nomination for producing the Spanish TV show La Musica de La Familia.

Concurrently, Burruss is attracting new audiences to the Broadway stage. Having brought her own charismatic acting and vocal talents to Broadway as Matron “Mama” Morton in the 2018 production of Chicago, as well as an off-Broadway production of Newsical The Musical, Burruss partnered with Brian Anthony Moreland (Broadway Global’s 2021 Producer of the Year) to initially produce Thoughts of a Colored Man. In 2022 came August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Danielle Brooks, which earned her a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination for Best Revival of a Play. Moreland says that it was largely Burruss’s efforts that substantially increased first-time ticket buyers for both shows. Next they’ll partner for a revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, coming to Broadway this Spring starring Taraji P. Henson and Cedric “The Entertainer” and directed by Debbie Allen.

In 2024 the Drama League bestowed its Gratitude Award to Burruss, recognizing her leadership and commitment to the theatre industry as she was producing the Broadway revival of The Wiz; in 2025 she produced its 57-city North American Tour. She also produced the 2025 revival of Othello with Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal and Molly Osborne, representing the first Broadway revival of the classic Shakespearean tragedy since 1982’s production with James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer and Dianne Wiest.

A native of Atlanta, Kandi Burruss discovered an early passion for performing and the live stage.

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Twelve Days of Christmas