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Ute
Lemper (b. 1963 in Münster, Germany) graduated from the
Dance Academy in Cologne and the Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School in
Vienna, and was shortly thereafter hand-picked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to
appear in the original Viennese staging of his Cats. In
Berlin, she went on to play such roles as Lola in The Blue Angel
and the tile role in Peter Pan, and in Paris, Maurice
Bejart created the ballet La mort subite for her and she won
the Molière Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of
Sally Bowles in Jérôme Savary's production of Cabaret.
As a cabaret artist, she is most celebrated for her interpretations of
the work of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, having appeared on recordings
of The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny Songspiel, and The
Seven Deadly Sins, and has performed Weill's work in venues as
varied as La Scala, Les Bouffes du Nord, the Sydney Opera House, the
Berliner Ensemble, Royal Festival Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy
Center, Joe's Pub, and the Tanglewood Festival. Ute was named Billboard
Magazine's Crossover Artist of the Year for 1993-1994, and in 1998,
she created the role of Velma Kelly in the London production of Chicago,
and incidentally won the Olivier Award for her performance. She
subsequently made her Broadway debut in the role later that year, and
then moved on to Las Vegas, where she played opposite Chita
Rivera's Roxie Hart. Recently triumphs include the publication
of her first book and an exhibition of her paintings. She
currently lives in New York City with her two children, Max and Stella. |
