The Sarah Siddons Society Announces Performers for 2024 Award Ceremony

The Sarah Siddons Society will present its 2024 Award to Tony Award-winner and eight-time nominee Kelli O'Hara, whose numerous Broadway credits include The King and I, Days of Wine and Roses, Kiss Me Kate, The Bridges of Madison County, Nice Work if You Can Get It, South Pacific, The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde.

The Society’s annual Award is presented to an individual who has achieved outstanding artistic achievement in theatre. Ms. O’Hara will be honored at the Society’s 2024 Benefit on Wednesday, November 6, 2024 at The Arts Club of Chicago, 201 E. Ontario St. in Chicago. (6 pm reception, 7 pm program).

Following a reception, the evening’s program will include musical selections from Ms. O’Hara’s most memorable shows performed by acclaimed Chicago theatre artists Cory Goodrich, Evan Tyrone Martin, Jennie Sophia and Katherine Alexis Thomas, under the direction of Joan Curto and music direction of Beckie Menzie. The evening, hosted by NBC 5 Chicago features reporter LeeAnn Trotter, will also feature the induction of the Sarah Siddons Society 2024 Scholarship Recipients.

Single tickets and a variety of sponsorship opportunities are currently available here. All proceeds benefit the Sarah Siddons Society Scholarship Program, dedicated to funding scholarships for promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities.

Sarah Siddons Society President Martin Balogh comments, “We are honored to present the incredibly talented Kelli O’Hara with Chicago’s oldest and most prestigious theatre award. Her performances from memorable revivals to spectacular new works on Broadway are always awe inspiring. There’s no recipient more deserving of this year’s award than Kelli O’Hara.”

About Kelli O'Hara

Kelli O'Hara has established herself as one of Broadway's greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award winner, Emmy and Grammy-nominated actress has appeared in twelve Broadway shows for which she has garnered eight Tony Award nominations.

She won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Grammy, Drama League and Outer Critics nominations for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include Kiss Me Kate, The Bridges of Madison County, Nice Work if You Can Get It, South Pacific, The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde.

O’Hara received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in Topic's hit web series, The Accidental Wolf, and can currently be seen on HBO’s The Gilded Age. Additional film and television credits include Showtime's Master of Sex, 13 Reasons Why, Blue Bloods, All My Children, All the Bright Places, Peter Pan Live!, Sex & The City 2, Martin Scorsese's The Key to Reserva, The Good Fight, N3mbers, and Car Talk.

In 2015, she made history as the first artist to make the crossover from Broadway to Opera when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehar's The Merry Widow opposite Renee Fleming and in 2018 returned as Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. She was last seen at The Metropolitan Opera in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’, The Hours, as Laura Brown.

O’Hara is a frequent performer on PBS's live telecasts, The Kennedy Center Honors, and performs often alongside The New York Philharmonic and The New York Pops. Along with her two Grammy nominations, her solo albums, Always and Wonder in the World, are available on Ghostlight.

O’Hara recently completed a critically-acclaimed limited Broadway engagement of the new musical Days of Wine and Roses, which also garnered rave reviews during its Off-Broadway run at The Atlantic Theatre Company last summer. She won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Musical in addition to receiving Tony and Drama League Nominations for her role. This production has been a labor of love for O'Hara and composer Adam Guettel, who dedicated the last 21 years to its development. Upcoming projects include Season 3 of The Gilded Age.

About Sarah Siddons Society

Since its inception, the mission of the Society has been to fund scholarships to promising theater arts students at top Chicago area universities including; The Theater Department, Columbia College; The Theatre School at DePaul University; Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University School of Communications. For additional information, visit sarahsiddonssociety.org.

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