Steppenwolf Theatre & Mark Cortale Present Broadway's KELLI O'HARA

Fresh off her critically acclaimed and Tony-nominated run in Broadway’s Days of Wine and Roses, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Mark Cortale are pleased to present Tony Award winner and musical theatre icon Kelli O’Hara with Music Director Dan Lipton, performing a program of beloved American Songbook classics and modern Broadway favorites. O’Hara will play three performances only April 18 & 19, 2025 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St. in Chicago. Tickets ($89 - $139) are now on sale at steppenwolf.org/kelliohara or by calling the Box Office at (312) 335-1650.

Hailed by the New York Times as "Broadway musical's undisputed queen," O'Hara will perform highlights from her incredible body of work which spans twelve Broadway productions. In addition to riveting musical performances, O'Hara will share stories and personal memories drawn from her landmark stage career in an intimate setting.

Performance schedule:

Friday, April 18, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 3 pm
Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 7:30 pm

About the Artists:

Kelli O'Hara has established herself as one of Broadway's greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award winner, Emmy, SAG 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, which was nominated for a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for Season 2. 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, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording.

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. Upcoming projects include Season 3 of The Gilded Age.

Dan Lipton conducted The Band’s Visit and Sting’s musical The Last Ship on Broadway. He’s arranged music and led bands for Sutton Foster, Kelli O'Hara, Mandy Gonzalez, Brian d’Arcy James, Judy Kuhn, John Lithgow, Martha Plimpton and Audra McDonald, performing at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, on Live with Kelly Ripa, The Today Show, PBS Great Performances, Late Show with David Letterman and with major symphony orchestras across the country.

Music supervision and orchestrations: An Officer and a Gentleman (U.S. tour), The Other Josh Cohen (Off-Broadway), The Drama Desk Awards. Music direction and onstage musician: Twyla Tharp’s How Long Blues (Little Island) under T Bone Burnett, The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard (Broadway), The Bridge Project (BAM, Old Vic) with Ethan Hawke directed by Sam Mendes, Herringbone with BD Wong directed by Roger Rees (La Jolla Playhouse).

He scored the feature film All These Small Moments (Orion Classics) starring Molly Ringwald and provided music for the podcasts Arts Educators Save the World (Story Pirates) and The Key of Love (Emerald Audio Network) from bestselling author Jenna Blum.

Pianist on three Grammy-nominated albums, he can be heard on piano in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon Prime Video) and Rebecca Hall’s award-winning film Passing (Netflix). His latest collection of jazz-pop covers with singer Colby Beserra, Jukebox Saloon Vol. 2, is streaming everywhere.