Andrea McArdle Biography

Andrea first captured the hearts of theatergoers everywhere in 1977 when she originated the title role in the mega-musical Annie, based on the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie. Since then, she has starred in several Broadway musicals, in New York, nationally and internationally. She has performed in concert halls from Carnegie Hall to the Las Vegas Hilton to the Hong Kong Philharmonic as well as several remarkable televisions appearances through the years including Johnny Carson, Merv Griffen and Dinah Shore shows along with several PBS concerts from the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. She has honed her craft by working with some of the legends o the entertainment industry such as Ethel Merman, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andres, Bob Hope, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Steve Martin and Martin Short, to name a few.

As Annie she became the youngest performer ever to be nominated for a Tony Award as Best Lead Actress in a Musical. She also received the Theater World and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for the girl with the red hair and big voice. She subsequently conquered London with her portrayal of Little Orphan Annie in the West End. (Fun fact: Catherine Zeta-Jones played young orphan Mollie in this production). Andrea was then tapped to portray Judy Garland in the NBC television movie Rainbow which proved that her talents translated to film.

Andrea starred in the Jerry Herman musical Jerry's Girls, alongside Carol Channing and Leslie Uggams; she portrayed the sassy Smoking Car, Ashley, in the original Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express; Esther, the Judy Garland role, in Meet Me In St. Louis; Sonia in They're Playing Our Song; Luisa in The Fantasticks; Eva Peron, in Tim Rice's Evita; Fantine in Les Miserables; Margy Frake in the original Broadway cast of State Fair, Nancy in Oliver; the Narrator, in Tim Rice's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; Belle, in Disney's Beauty and the Beast; Sally Bowles in Cabaret; Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun; and the quintessen­tial stage-mother in Gypsy; as well as Sandy, in Grease.

Andrea has performed in the best showrooms of many of the casino hotels in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and other large concert halls throughout the country including Carnegie Hall and the MET Opera House.