Tony Award-Winning Actress Kelli O’Hara to Receive the Sarah Siddons Society Award

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 and more.

The Society’s annual Award is presented to an individual who has achieved outstanding artistic achievement in theater. 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 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. program).

Following a reception, the evening’s program will include musical selections from Ms. O’Hara’s most memorable shows performed by some of Chicago’s most acclaimed theater artists 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 at https://sarahsiddonssociety.org/. 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 noted, “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.”

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, Blue Bloods, Peter Pan Live!, Sex & The City 2 and Martin Scorsese’s The Key to Reserva.

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.

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