Yesssss!
Award winning thespian LaChanze and her daughter Celia Rose Gooding are both headlining Broadway plays, making them the first Black mother and daughter duo to perform on Broadway at the same time, Shadow and Act reports.
LaChanze will headline in the Broadway winter production of A Christmas Carol as the “Ghost of Christmas Present,” while Celia Rose headlines Jagged Little Pill as “Frankie.” LaChanze is an accomplished actress, singer and dancer and her daughter is a star on the rise!
Born Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, the accomplished performer won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in 2006 for her role as “Celie” in The Color Purple and has also been featured in productions such as Ragtime, The Wiz and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Celia Rose studied dance at the Alvin Ailey Institute and acting and film at the Berridge Conservatory in Normandy, France. She has held roles in the productions Urinetown and Fame.
“I’m grateful that I have this career, but imagining the fact that my daughter would also be doing this at the same time is very rewarding. As a Black woman, we see so many other mother and daughter teams on film and television. Oftentimes we see children taking over the professions of their parents, but rarely do we see it in theater where it’s successful, LaChanze told BET.
Celia Rose plays “Frankie” in Jagged Little Pill, a Black teenager adopted by a white family who advocates for equity and equality. She also spoke on the importance of this moment in history. “Being in predominantly white spaces and only seeing white people in positions of power and in positions of positivity is damaging because it subconsciously puts the idea in our minds that we are not capable of this greatness and the only standing outlier is our skin tone. I think being able to voice that publicly, and in truth is really, really important for a lot of people to see and I’m so grateful I get to be the one to say that,” she said.
The mother daughter powerhouse are both basking in the moment but in order to take the role LaChanze had one request. “I’m taking off the night from my show to go to her opening. That was something that was contractual for me. It was actually a deal breaker and if they didn’t give me the day off I would have turned down the job because I can’t miss this significant life moment for her,” she said.
We love to see it! Congratulations to LaChanze and Celia Rose! A Christmas Carol and Jagged Little Pill are currently showing on Broadway! Tickets can be purchased at Broadway.com.
Photo Courtesy of Shadow and Act