KT Sullivan is an American singer and actress known for her performances incabaret andmusical theatre.
BornKathleen Sullivan inCoalgate, Oklahoma to Elizabeth, a poet and composer, and James A. Sullivan, a director of theAgricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service inNorman, Oklahoma,[1] she performed with her family as the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers.
After attending theUniversity of Oklahoma, she studiedopera inItaly andCalifornia, but theBroadway songs sung byBarbara Cook led her in a different musical direction.[2]
Sullivan performs her cabaret act in venues such as theLaurie Beechman Theater and theOak Room at theAlgonquin Hotel inNew York City, the Nikko Hotel and three West Coast Cabaret Conventions inSan Francisco, and The Pheasantry and The Crazy Coqs at the Brasserie Zedel inLondon.[3] In a review of her appearance at the Oak Room in 2007,Rex Reed said, "Larky and luscious as ever, she's also singing better."[4]
All the Things You Are, Sullivan's 2008 cabaret show at the Oak Room, featured the work ofJerome Kern.Stephen Holden ofThe New York Times wrote that "Ms. Sullivan ... has a fluttery, semioperatic soprano that gives Kern's most famous melodies their due. But her primary goal on Thursday was to bring his songs down to earth without damaging them."[5] In October 2008, she and frequent partnerMark Nadler performed their cabaret actCole Porter & Friends at the South Orange Performing Arts Center inSouth Orange, New Jersey.[6]
Another of her Oak Room shows,Dancing in the Dark, featured the works ofHoward Dietz andArthur Schwartz. In his March 2009 review, Holden wrote, "The ability to convey a sense of continual surprise and discovery while singing almost any standard is one of Ms. Sullivan's many gifts. That her light-operatic voice is as supple today as ever is her ace in the hole. A virtuoso at multiple styles of musical comedy who has refined a hundred variations of the double take, Ms. Sullivan can turn on a dime and deliver a formal rendition of "Dancing in the Dark" in which her luscious middle and lower registers supply serious drama."[7]
In April 2012, Sullivan was named artistic director of theMabel Mercer Foundation.
On Broadway, Sullivan appeared as Suky Tawdry in the 1989 revival ofThe Threepenny Opera and as Lorelei Lee in the 1995 revival ofGentlemen Prefer Blondes. She toured inAnnie Get Your Gun withCathy Rigby and also performed inSugar andBorn Yesterday. She, Mark Nadler, and Ruth Leon wroteAmerican Rhapsody: A New Musical Revue, which she and Nadler performed at theoff-BroadwayTriad Theatre between November 2000 and June 2002. The musical was nominated for theLucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical of 2001 and theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical Revue of 2000-2001 and won theMAC Award for Best Musical Revue.[8][9] She also appeared in the New York City productionsA... My Name Is Alice in 1984 and 1992 andSplendora in 1995, and performed in theMusicals Tonight concert presentations ofSo Long, 174th Street andBy the Beautiful Sea in 1999 andFifty Million Frenchmen in 2006.[10][11]
Inregional theatre, Sullivan appeared inYou Never Know in 1996 at thePaper Mill Playhouse inMillburn, New Jersey,[10] and she has performed at theOld Globe Theatre, theHartford Stage Company, theMunicipal Opera of St. Louis, theGoodspeed Opera House, and theGreat Lakes Theater Festival.
In theWest End, Sullivan appeared inVienna to Weimar in 2004 and has performed in revues celebrating the songs ofNoël Coward andIrving Berlin.
Sullivan has recorded albums with Nadler, includingAlways: The Love Story of Irving Berlin,A Fine Romance: A Dorothy Fields Songbook (2006) andA Swell Party: Cole Porter (2007). Her solo recordings includeCrazy World (1993),Sing My Heart: The Songs of Harold Arlen (1995),In Other Words, The Songs of Bart Howard (1997),KT Sullivan, Ladies of the Silver Screen (2002), andKT Sullivan Sings the Sweetest Sounds of Richard Rodgers. She also recorded the revival cast album ofGentlemen Prefer Blondes.[12][13] Her latest CD, "Timeless Tunes with Jon Weber" was recorded in 2009.
Sullivan married business communications consultant Stephen Miner Downey (President of the New York Browning Society) atSt. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in New York City on November 27, 1999.[1]
