Theatre Register

Loretta Devine

Shows · Loretta Devine

Actor b. 1949 On stage 19771986

Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls (1981), Amelia "M'Dear" McKellan in the Netflix series, Family Reunion (2022), Gloria Matthews in the film Waiting to Exhale (1995), and her recurring role as Adele Webber on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Devine also played Juanita Sims in the film adaptation of For Colored Girls (2010). She is also known for her roles as Stevie Rallen on NBC's A Different World during its first se…

On stage 5 productions, 9 years

1977 Hair Biltmore Theatre · Revival · directed by Tom O'Horgan 43 perf.
1978 A Broadway Musical Lunt-Fontanne Theatre · Original · directed by Gower Champion 1 perf.
1979 Comin' Uptown Winter Garden Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Peters 45 perf.
1981 Dreamgirls Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Bennett 1,521 perf.
1986 Big Deal Broadway Theatre · Original · directed by Bob Fosse 70 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once9 names

Larry Marshall 3 productions
Cleavant Derricks 3 productions
Tiger Haynes 2 productions
Ronald Dunham 2 productions
Raymond Patterson 2 productions
Paul Binotto 2 productions
Frank Mastrocola 2 productions
Deborah Burrell 2 productions
Alan Weeks 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 4 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

In the literature8 passages

  • Cast: Obba Babatunde, Cleavant Derricks, Loretta Devine, Ben Harney, Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Deborah Burrellebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Dreamgirls. Loretta Devine, Jennifer Holliday, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Cleavant Derricks. (Martha Swope)ebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • [>] “I wanted to make you all stars”: Loretta Devine, interview with the author, November 19, 2010.ebooks/Wasson, Sam/Fosse - Sam Wasson.txt
  • BEN HARNEY, OBBA BABATUNDE, CLEAVANT DERRICKS, JENNIFER HOLLIDAY, LORETTA DEVINE, SHERYL LEE RALPH in “DREAMGIRLS”theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • SHERYL LEE RALPH, CLEAVANT DERRICKS, JENNIFER HOLLIDAY, LORETTA DEVINE in “DREAMGIRLS”theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • produced by Michael Butler in association with K. H. Nezhad with Perry Arthur, Cleavant Derricks, Loretta Devine, Randalltheatre-pdfs/More Opening Nights on Broadway - Steven Suskin.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Any portrait. 1,626 of 7,139 people have one, so this is the usual case rather than the exception.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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