VIDEO: Because it's June! Watch Leslie Uggams' Iconic Performance of 'June is Bustin' Out All Over'
Celebrate June with the annual favorite performance from Carousel.
By: Alan Henry Jun. 01, 2022
It's that time of year again! We're celebrating June 1 with the iconic video of Leslie Uggams singing 'June is Bustin' Out All Over' from Carousel!
Uggams' performance has gone down in musical theatre history due to her flubbing the lyrics, and making up her own, but sticking the landing nonetheless! In later years, Uggams clarified that the song was not in her usual repertoire, and she was following lyrics on large cue cards, when the person holding them slipped and fell into the mud.
Perhaps best known for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series Alex Haley's Roots, Uggams has performed to critical and popular acclaim ever since her first professional appearances at the age of nine at the famed Apollo Theater in New York City. There she opened for such musical legends as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. Now, after six decades on stage and screen, she is a legend in her own right. She is on the Board of Directors of the Apollo Theater; was recently awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut; and is also the recipient of an American Artist Award from Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
Uggams starred in Hallelujah, Baby!, which premiered on Broadway in 1967, and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical. She appeared on Broadway in the revue Blues in the Night in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, Jerry's Girls in 1985. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in Thoroughly Modern Millie (2003 - 2004) and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond at the Kennedy Center in 2004 and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005. In 2001 she appeared in the August Wilson play King Hedley II, receiving a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
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