Lillias White (born July 21, 1951) is an American singer and actress.

The Brooklyn, New York native made her Broadway debut in Barnum in 1981. She understudied the role of Effie in the original 1981 production of Dreamgirls and played the part in the 1987 revival. White has appeared on Broadway in Cats as Grizabella, Rock'N'Roll! The First 5000 Years, the ill-fated Carrie as the standby for Miss Gardner, Once on This Island as Asaka, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as Miss Jones (a role rewritten for Ms. White), Chicago as Matron Mama Morton, and benefit concert versions of Funny Girl (in which she sang the role of Fanny Brice), Hair, and Dreamgirls , reprising her role as Effie, for which she won the Drama League Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Perhaps her most notable role was in Cy Coleman's The Life, for which she won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for her portrayal of a world-weary, no-nonsense, streetwise hooker named Sonja. Her tour-de-force performance of "The Oldest Profession," a song in which Sonja bemoans the life of a prostitute, received a standing ovation nightly.^{[citation needed]}

Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American actress and singer. She starred in the ABC television drama Private Practice as Dr. Naomi Bennett. She has appeared on the stage in both musicals and dramas, such as Ragtime and A Raisin in the Sun. She maintains an active concert and recording career, performing song cycles and operas as well as performing in concert throughout the US. She has won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress four times, twice each for plays and musicals.

Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters, she began to study acting at a young age to counteract her diagnosis as "hyperactive". McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno. She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Good Company Players, beginning in their Junior Company. "I knew I wanted to be involved in theater when I had my first chance to perform with the Good Company Players Junior Company." "The people who have had the most impact on my life: Good Company director Dan Pessano and my mother." She studied classical voice as an undergraduate under Ellen Faull at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1993.

Heather Headley (born October 5, 1974) is a Trinidadian-American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She has won one Tony Award and one Grammy Award.

Headley was born in Barataria, Trinidad and Tobago, the daughter of Hannah and Eric Headley. At age four, Headley began playing the music of her native Trinidad, including calypso, and soca.^{[citation needed]} In 1989 she moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in the United States at the age of fifteen with her mother and brother Junior, when her father was offered a job as pastor of McKee Street Church of God with headquarters in Anderson, Indiana.

Headley attended Northrop High School, and was a member of their resident show choir, Charisma, and starred as Fanny Brice in the school's production of Funny Girl. After graduating from Northrop High School, Headley attended Northwestern University to study communications and musical theatre until the last day of her junior year, when she made the difficult decision to become a part of the musical Ragtime and drop out of school.

Seth Rudetsky is an American musician, actor, writer, and radio host. He currently is the host of "Seth's Big Fat Broadway" on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's On Broadway. In this and many other projects, Rudetsky shares his knowledge of Broadway theatre history and trivia.

Rudetsky was nominated for the Emmy Award on three occasions for his work as a comedy writer for The Rosie O'Donnell Show. He was a writer for the Grammy Award shows of 1999 and 2000. Rudetsky created the opening numbers for the 1998 and 2000 Tony Awards. Rudetsky also wrote the opening number for the last seven Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competitions, and has been responsible for many of their Gypsy Of The Year shows. On Thursday evenings, he hosts "Seth's Broadway Chatterbox", a one hour talk show, at a New York City club, "Don't Tell Mama". He wrote and performed a one-man show called "Rhapsody in Seth". He often tours with variations on his one-man show.

He conducted the orchestra for the November 30, 2007 special performance "Light the Lights--Broadway is Back" end-of-the-strike celebration.