Women of Color on Broadway Will Celebrate LaChanze and Melba Moore at The Cooper Union's Great Hall

Women of Color on Broadway, a non-profit dedicated to supporting women of African, Latin, and Asian descent pursuing careers in musical theater, will present its Purple Crystal Honorary Awards in The Cooper Union's Great Hall on February 10, 2020. This year's honorees are Tony-award winners LaChanze and Melba Moore. The award celebrates the heroines of African, Latin, and Asian descent who paved the way for the next generation of women of color in theater.

The evening will include special performances by Amber Gray ("Hadestown"), Celia Gooding ("Jagged Little Pill"), Kayla Davion ("The Tina Turner Musical"), Aléna Watters ("The CHER Show"), Darlesia Cearcy ("Once On This Island"), Linah Sta. Ana ("Miss Saigon"), Kuhoo Verma ("Medusa the Musical"), Genesis Collado ("Over Here!"), Barbara Douglas, and Vanisha Gould.

Women of Color on Broadway's Purple Crystal Honorary Award ceremony will be filmed for broadcast and streaming on ALL ARTS, WNET's new broadcast channel and streaming platform. Visit allarts.org/everywhere to download the streaming app and learn how to watch.

The event is being co-produced for the Great Hall by Women of Color on Broadway co-founders Alexia Sielo and Victoria Velazquez and The Cooper Union's Tim Marback and Kim Newman.

Who:

Tony, SAG, and Emmy winning actress LaChanze stepped onto stage 27 Broadway seasons ago, emerging as one of the brightest stars and voices to hit Broadway. She made audiences sit up and take notice in the original production of "Once On This Island" as Ti Moune. She won a Tony Award for giving a voice to Celie, the unlikely heroine of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple," in the musical's original staging. Shortly after, she nabbed an Emmy Award for her riveting performance in PBS's Handel's Messiah Rocks: A Joyful Noise and a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture in award winning film "The Help." During the 2018 Broadway season, she brought the magic to audiences again as Diva Donna in "Summer The Donna Summer Musical."

Singer and actress Melba Moore is a four-time Grammy® nominee and the winner of the 1970 Tony Award® for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, for her performance as Lutiebelle in Purlie. In 1995, Moore was back on Broadway as the first black actress to play the role of Fantine in Les Misérables. She was also the first female pop/R&B artist to do a non-operatic solo concert at New York City's Metropolitan Opera House and at the Olympia in Paris. With a total of eleven top ten U.S. hits on the Billboard charts over the past 40 years, both singles and albums, Moore continues into the 21st century as one of pop music's most enduring artists.

When:

Monday, February 10, 2020 at 7-9pm

The Great Hall of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art 7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues New York, NY 10003 (6 to Astor Place/R-W to 8th Street)

More:

The event is free and open to the public. General public should reserve a space http://bit.ly/wocobcu. Please note seating is on a first come basis; an RSVP does not guarantee admission as we generally overbook to ensure a full house. The house will open at 6:00pm; at 6:45pm, those on standby will be allowed to claim any remaining seats, so please plan a timely arrival.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski