Judy Kuhn

Judy Kuhn is an American actress, singer, and activist born on May 20, 1958, in New York City to Jewish parents. She grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, where she attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C. Kuhn enrolled at Oberlin College and, after studying voice with Frank Farina, transferred into the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she trained as an operatic soprano and graduated in 1981. Following graduation, she relocated to Boston, where she waited tables and studied acting before returning to New York after a period of summer stock work.

Kuhn made her professional stage debut in 1981 and her Broadway debut four years later in the 1985 original production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a Rupert Holmes musical based on the unfinished Charles Dickens novel, in which she played Alice, Miss Isabel Yearsley, and Succubae while also understudying the title role originated by Betty Buckley. Her next Broadway appearance came in Rags, which opened on August 21, 1986, and closed after four performances. She then originated the role of Cosette in the 1987 Broadway production of Les Misérables, earning her first Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.

In 1988, Kuhn appeared on Broadway as Florence Vassy in Chess, directed by Trevor Nunn and featuring music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with lyrics by Tim Rice. The production was a transfer from the West End, reworked by Nunn from a pop and rock opera format into a more conventional musical theatre piece with a new book by Richard Nelson. Though the show received largely negative reviews and closed on June 25, 1988, after less than two months, Kuhn's performance drew critical praise. Variety described her voice as the production's chief pleasure, and The Village Voice noted the lush vocal tone and feeling she brought to the role. She received her second Tony nomination, this time for Best Actress in a Musical, along with a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. The original Broadway cast recording received a Grammy Award nomination. In January 1989, Kuhn reprised the role of Florence Vassy in a Carnegie Hall concert performance with the Broadway cast, held as a benefit for Emergency Shelter Inc., and later that year performed the role again in Skellefteå, Sweden, during a chess World Cup final tournament alongside Tommy Körberg and Murray Head.

Kuhn made her West End debut in 1989, starring in the London production of Metropolis alongside Jeremy Kingston. The Times praised her performance as edgy and angular, and she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. In 1992, she appeared on Broadway in Two Shakespearean Actors, a production featuring Brian Bedford, Frances Conroy, Hope Davis, Victor Garber, Laura Innes, and Eric Stoltz, which closed after 29 regular performances. The following year, she portrayed Amalia Balash in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway revival of She Loves Me, earning her third Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. In December 1993, she played Betty Schaefer in the U.S. premiere production of Sunset Boulevard at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles, a production that recorded the only unabridged cast album of the show. Kuhn reprised her role as Cosette in 1995 for the tenth anniversary concert of Les Misérables at the Royal Albert Hall in London, released on DVD as Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert.

Beyond the stage, Kuhn provided the singing voice for the title character in the 1995 Disney animated film Pocahontas, performing the song "Colors of the Wind," whose composers received the Academy Award for Best Original Song. She has released four studio albums over the course of her career.

In 1997, Kuhn appeared in the Broadway concert production of King David, a Disney project with a book and lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Alan Menken, directed by Mike Ockrent, which ran for nine performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Her Off-Broadway and regional credits during the late 1990s and early 2000s include As Thousands Cheer at the Drama Dept.'s Greenwich House Theater in 1998, Strike Up the Band at Encores! in 1998, the title role in The Ballad of Little Jo at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2000, and Eli's Comin at the Vineyard Theatre Company in 2001, for which she won an Obie Award. In September 2002, she performed at the second annual Actors' Fund benefit concert of Funny Girl at the New Amsterdam Theatre, singing "Who Are You Now?" and "People." That same year, she played Fosca in a Stephen Sondheim celebration production of Passion at the Kennedy Center. Additional regional credits include The Glass Menagerie at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton in 1991, Martin Guerre at the Hartford Stage Company in 1993, The Highest Yellow at the Signature Theater in Virginia in 2004, and Three Sisters in a Craig Lucas adaptation at the Intiman Theatre in Seattle in 2005.

On October 23, 2007, Kuhn returned to the Broadway production of Les Misérables after two decades, this time in the role of Fantine, succeeding Lea Salonga and remaining with the revival until it closed on January 6, 2008. In 2013, she portrayed Fosca in the Off-Broadway Classic Stage Company revival of Passion, running from February through April of that year. Also in 2013, Kuhn originated the role of Helen Bechdel in the Off-Broadway Public Theater production of Fun Home, and she subsequently reprised the role when the musical transferred to Broadway in 2015, receiving her fourth Tony Award nomination, for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. In 2020, she received a second Olivier Award nomination for her performance as Golde in a London revival of Fiddler on the Roof. In 2021, she played Sara Jane Moore in the Off-Broadway revival of Assassins. Her Broadway credits, spanning 1985 to 2015, also include Chance and Chemistry, A Wonderful Life, and Children and Art.