Valley Performing Arts Center presents Broadway, film and television star Vanessa Williams at 8:00pm on January 16, 2015. Williams will be performing all of her hit songs including “Dreamin,” “The Sweetest Days,” “Work To Do,” “Colors of the Wind,” and her signature classic “Save The Best For Last.”
Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in entertainment today. She has conquered the musical charts, Broadway, television and motion pictures. She has sold millions of albums worldwide and she has achieved critical acclaim as an actress on stage, in film and on television.
Williams was born in comfortable Millwood, New York, to music teacher parents. She sang and danced in school productions and signed her high school yearbook with a promise to “see you on Broadway”. After winning a performing scholarship to Syracuse University, she left school and tried to make it in New York show business. She began entering beauty contests, eventually winning Miss New York and then becoming the first African-American Miss America in 1983. During her reign, some nude photos surfaced. Although the photos were taken before she took the crown, she was forced to resign. Many predicted that her future in show business was over. Instead she landed a recording contract and released several hit albums and has led a storied career in film and television.
Her albums The Right Stuff, The Comfort Zone and The Sweetest Days earned multiple Grammy nominations and have yielded such classic hits as “Save the Best For Last,” “Dreamin’,” “Work To Do” and “Love Is.” Her single “Colors of the Wind,” from Disney’s Pocahontas (1995), won an Academy Award. Her recordings also include two holiday albums, plus Vanessa Williams Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years and Everlasting Love, a romantic collection of love songs from the 1970’s. In 1994, Vanessa took Broadway by storm when she replaced Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spider Woman, winning the hearts of critics and becoming a box-office sensation. She garnered rave reviews and was nominated for a Tony Award for the 2002 revival of Into the Woods. She also headlined a limited special engagement of the classic, Carmen Jones, at the Kennedy Center and starred in the Encore! Series staged concert production of St. Louis Woman.
For her work on ABC’s critically-acclaimed hit series, “Ugly Betty,” she has won or been nominated for numerous individual and ensemble awards, including the Emmy, SAG Award, Golden Globe and NAACP Image Awards. Vanessa achieved a career pinnacle in 2007, with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her accomplishments as a performer.
Tickets range from $40 – $110 and can be purchased at http://www.valleyperformingartscenter.org/calendar/an-evening-with-vanessa-williams/view/2015-01-16.