Biography
Born on 16 November 1940 in Pontiac, Michigan, Donna McKechnie spent her childhood in Detroit. A screening of the 1948 British film The Red Shoes sparked her ambition to dance, an idea her parents resisted. At age 15 she relocated to New York and auditioned for the American Ballet Theatre, only to be rejected. A short, unsatisfying stint at Radio City Music Hall followed before she entered the realm of musical theatre. After touring in West Side Story as one of the Cool girls and taking part in several other productions, she made her Broadway debut as a dancer in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying in 1961. That production introduced her to choreographer Bob Fosse and dance captain Gwen Verdon; McKechnie appeared in numbers such as “A Secretary Is Not A Toy” and “Coffee Break.” She later toured as Philia in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and joined the six gyrating female dancers on the television program Hullabaloo, where she worked alongside Michael Bennett, who would exert a lasting influence on her career. In April 1968 she returned to Broadway as Kathy McKenna in the brief musical adaptation of Leo Rosten’s stories, The Education Of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, and in December of that year she portrayed Vivien Della Hoya in Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s Promises, Promises, delivering the Act One finale “Turkey Lurkey Time.” Next came the role of the Princess in a touring company of Call Me Madam led by Ethel Merman. Bennett, who had choreographed Promises, Promises, again featured her in the celebrated “Tick Tock” sequence of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, which premiered in 1970; she also sang in the trio that performed “You Could Drive A Person Crazy.” After leaving the New York production she reprised the part in Los Angeles and London, then toured as Ivy in a 1971 revival of On The Town. In March 1973 she both choreographed and performed in the one-night Sondheim: A Musical Tribute at the Shubert Theatre; the following year she appeared in the New York City Center revue Music! Music! and joined Richard Kiley and Bob Fosse in the film The Little Prince.
In 1975 McKechnie originated the role of Cassie in A Chorus Line, the landmark musical conceived, directed, and choreographed by Bennett. Her showcase number was “The Music And The Mirror,” and she received the Tony Award for Best Actress In A Musical. She married Bennett in 1976, though the union ended after only a few months. Following additional appearances in A Chorus Line, she received a diagnosis of arthritis in 1980 and was informed she would never dance again. Pursuing an array of physical and psychological treatments, she rejoined the Broadway company of A Chorus Line in 1986. Throughout the remainder of the decade she toured in Sweet Charity and Annie Get Your Gun and appeared in the 1988 London revival of Can-Can. In the early 1990s she performed off-Broadway, first in the revue Cut The Ribbons alongside Georgia Engel and Barbara Feldon, then as Mrs. Kelly, one of the romantic interests, in Annie Warbucks. In 1993 she joined nearly all of the original 1970 New York cast of Company for three nostalgic concert performances. She earned the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer in 1996 for her portrayal of Emily Arden, the city-slicker singer, in the Broadway adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s State Fair. Later that year she brought her one-woman show Inside The Music to London and recreated Cassie for a BBC Radio 2 production of A Chorus Line. Since then she has starred in I Do, I Do at Queen’s Theatre in the Park in New York, The Goodbye Girl at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and the gala Standing Ovations: An Evening With The Great Ladies Of Broadway at New York’s 92nd Street YMHA, sharing the stage with Carol Channing, Liliane Montevecchi, Leslie Uggams, and Marilyn Horne. In February 1997 she played Phyllis in a concert performance of Follies at London’s Drury Lane Theatre, and just over a year later she assumed the role of Sally in a well-received production of the same Sondheim work at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
In 1975 McKechnie originated the role of Cassie in A Chorus Line, the landmark musical conceived, directed, and choreographed by Bennett. Her showcase number was “The Music And The Mirror,” and she received the Tony Award for Best Actress In A Musical. She married Bennett in 1976, though the union ended after only a few months. Following additional appearances in A Chorus Line, she received a diagnosis of arthritis in 1980 and was informed she would never dance again. Pursuing an array of physical and psychological treatments, she rejoined the Broadway company of A Chorus Line in 1986. Throughout the remainder of the decade she toured in Sweet Charity and Annie Get Your Gun and appeared in the 1988 London revival of Can-Can. In the early 1990s she performed off-Broadway, first in the revue Cut The Ribbons alongside Georgia Engel and Barbara Feldon, then as Mrs. Kelly, one of the romantic interests, in Annie Warbucks. In 1993 she joined nearly all of the original 1970 New York cast of Company for three nostalgic concert performances. She earned the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer in 1996 for her portrayal of Emily Arden, the city-slicker singer, in the Broadway adaptation of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s State Fair. Later that year she brought her one-woman show Inside The Music to London and recreated Cassie for a BBC Radio 2 production of A Chorus Line. Since then she has starred in I Do, I Do at Queen’s Theatre in the Park in New York, The Goodbye Girl at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and the gala Standing Ovations: An Evening With The Great Ladies Of Broadway at New York’s 92nd Street YMHA, sharing the stage with Carol Channing, Liliane Montevecchi, Leslie Uggams, and Marilyn Horne. In February 1997 she played Phyllis in a concert performance of Follies at London’s Drury Lane Theatre, and just over a year later she assumed the role of Sally in a well-received production of the same Sondheim work at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
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