Ann Harada is an American actress and singer who was first known for the musical Avenue Q, in which she originated the role of Christmas Eve, the heavily accented Japanese therapist.
[3] Harada earned her Equity Card in 1987 when she was cast in Maury Yeston and Larry Gelbart's 1,2,3,4,5 at Manhattan Theatre Club.
[5] In 1998, Harada starred in the National Asian American Theatre Company's highly praised All-Asian production of William Finn's Falsettoland.
[9] About her performance in the Broadway production, Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times: "Counseling the romantically troubled Kate, she temporarily drops her habitually pinched voice to deliver, in the show's wittiest coup de théâtre, a full-throated ballad in the manner of a 1950's musical diva...The more you love someone/The more you want to kill him, Christmas sings in a shivery, rafters-shaking alto.
"[10] Hilton Als, in The New Yorker, in another rave for the show, noted that Avenue Q "has so much to recommend it...But not to single out the remarkable Ann Harada — a funny girl who can sing, act, and let the audience in on the joke all at the same time — would be a mistake.
Harada's guests for 2013 included Cinderella's Santino Fontana, Max von Essen and Smash co-stars Leslie Odom, Jr. and Wesley Taylor.
[16] On April 24, 2007, Harada joined the Broadway company of Les Misérables playing Madame Thénardier; she replaced the British actress Jenny Galloway.
[19] Harada did "sharp work" in The Muny's production of High School Musical in St. Louis in 2008 playing the drama teacher (Ms.
[24] Her recording of A Last Confession (lyrics by William Butler Yeats) on Steve Marzullo's album Show Some Beauty was a Playlist pick in USA Today in June 2011.
[25] She appeared as Linda, the stage manager of the show-within-a-show, in eighteen episodes of NBC's musical drama Smash alongside Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston, Jack Davenport and her 9 to 5 colleague Megan Hilty.
[28] Scott Brown of New York, in his rave, wrote: "The score floods your brain with Rodgers's stately, aching melodies, including the bewitching 'Ten Minutes Ago' and the clucking, catchy 'Stepsister's Lament,' translated here into a go-for-broke chorus number centering on Harada.
Her set included "OK, That's Ten," a very short, previously unheard song written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for her character on Smash.
[35] In October 2016, "the excellent Ann Harada" appeared as Stacey in The Women's Project's world premiere of Stuffed, a new play by the comedienne Lisa Lampanelli with "some laughs here, some genuine pain and even a bit of insight".
production of the dated 1938 Rodgers and Hart musical, I Married an Angel "[i]n a relatively insignificant role, Ann Harada manages to steal the show at the end with the perfectly hilarious delivery of a single line.
"[41] On April 26, 2020, Harada rejoined three of her Pacific Overtures castmates for Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration on Broadway.com in an "inventive" split-screen-conference-call-like version of the song "Someone in a Tree".
Written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio, a backpacking couple get lost and find "the magical town of Schmigadoon, in which everyone acts as if they're in a studio musical from the 1940s".
[49] In a very well received June 2023 production at The Muny in St. Louis, Harada channeled "her inner Angela Lansbury to deliver a sentimental take on Beauty and the Beast.
Her warbly warm vocal coupled with Belle’s extravagant golden gown create a goosebump inducing and tear producing moment".
[51] In June 2024, Harada was "brightly amusing as a woman in the throes of menopause" in the highly-praised American premiere of Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin, at Atlantic Theater Company with Sandra Oh as the leader of a jury of 12 women.
as a stage musical at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. Harada reprised her role from the Schmigadoon Apple TV+ series as Florence Menlove, the mayor's wife.