Theatre Register

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Shows · Sheryl Lee Ralph

Actor b. 1956 On stage 19812003

Sheryl Lee Ralph (born December 30, 1956) is an American actress and singer. Known for her performances on stage and screen, she earned acclaim for her role as Deena Jones in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls (1981), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Since 2021, she has starred as Barbara Howard on the ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2022, becoming the first Black woman in 35 years to win the award. She made her film debut in the 1977 comedy A Piece of the Action. In 1991, she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her p…

On stage 3 productions, 22 years

1981 Dreamgirls Imperial Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Bennett 1,521 perf.
2002 Thoroughly Modern Millie Marquis Theatre · Original · directed by Michael Mayer 903 perf.
2003 Wicked Gershwin Theatre · Original · directed by Joe Mantello 8,500 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 once3 names

Terry Burrell 2 productions
Megan Sikora 2 productions
Cleavant Derricks 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. 1 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.

Also credited on1 work

Sister Act

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • Beverly Hillbillies salary—she founded the Irene Ryan Award for college and university students in 1972. Sheryl Lee Ralph and Dan Butler were a couple of the earliest recipients. For many years to come, at least one young man and one young woman will receive a cash prize because of Irene Ryan.ebooks/Filichia, Peter/B007L4OWCU EBOK - Peter Filichia.txt
  • 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
  • Cast: Sutton Foster, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Harriet Harris, Marc Kudisch, Gavin Creel, Angela Christian, Ken Leung, Francis Jue, Anne L. Nathanebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.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

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.
  • 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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