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Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, known professionally as LaChanze (/ləʃɑnz/; born December 16, 1961) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role in ''The Color Purple''.〔("Anthony Rapp Will Join Tony Winners Idina Menzel and LaChanze in Broadway-Bound Musical If/Then" ) ''Playbill''. Retrieved 13 August 2013.〕〔("LaChanze" ) Oprah.com. Retrieved 13 August 2013.〕 ==Life== Born in St. Augustine, Florida, to parents Walter and Rosalie Sapp, her stage name "LaChanze" (Creole: the charmed one), is taken from her grandmother. After moving to Connecticut, her childhood love of singing and dancing caused her mother to enroll her in the Bowen Peters Cultural Arts Center in New Haven. It is there that she first discovered her love for performing. At Warren Harding High School in Bridgeport, LaChanze made her debut as Lola in the school production of ''Damn Yankees''. Living so close to New York City gave LaChanze access to the world of theater. The first theatrical production she ever saw was the musical ''Chicago''. Graciela Daniele was cast in the production and many years later Daniele had a lasting impact on LaChanze's professional development as a performer. While she greatly enjoyed the dance world, LaChanze often felt limited and had the frequent urge to stop dancing and belt out a dramatic tune or to erupt into an intense monologue. After high school, LaChanze studied Drama at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, before transferring to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she studied Theater and Dance. Her first summer job was as a tap dancer in the ensemble of ''Uptown... It's Hot!'' at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The show soon moved on to Broadway where LaChanze began her professional career in the theater. While LaChanze was eight months pregnant with her second child, her husband, securities trader Calvin Gooding, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was working at Cantor Fitzgerald in Tower One of the World Trade Center. On September 6, 2002, she sang the National Anthem at a joint meeting of Congress in Federal Hall, the first meeting of Congress in New York since 1790.〔()〕〔Lehrer, Sari. ("Weddings" ) ''New York Magazine'', Summer 2006, retrieved August 29, 2013〕 She later sang ''Amazing Grace'' at the dedication of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on May 15, 2014, dedicating her performance to her late husband. LaChanze remarried in 2005 to Derek Fordjour, and later divorced him in 2014. The divorce was finalized on March 27, 2014 in Westchester County. 〔Michael Gioia, "My If/Then Moment": LaChanze Recounts the Divine Intervention Leading Her to the 9/11 Memorial, 18 Jun 2014, http://www.playbill.com/news/article/my-if-then-moment-lachanze-recounts-the-divine-intervention-leading-her-to--322641〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LaChanze」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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