[3] Born in St. Augustine, Florida, to Walter and Rosalie Sapp, her stage name "LaChanze" (Creole: the charmed one) is taken from her grandmother.

After moving to Connecticut, her childhood love of singing and dancing caused her mother to enroll her in the Bowen Peters Cultural Arts Center in New Haven.

[5][6] In December 1998, she joined the cast of the Ahrens and Flaherty and Terrence McNally Broadway musical Ragtime, replacing Audra McDonald in the role of "Sarah.

"[7] She played the role of Viveca in the Playwrights Horizons Off-Broadway production of the musical The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, which opened in June 2000.

[9] LaChanze participated in an Actors Fund of America benefit concert of Funny Girl, with many performers portraying the character of Fanny Brice, in September 2002.

[16] She was in the Off-Broadway production of Inked Baby, written by Christina Anderson, which opened in March 2009 at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

She produced Topdog/Underdog with David Stone, Rashad V. Chambers, Marc Platt, Debra Martin Chase, and the Shubert Organization.

[20] She also produced Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway with David Stone, Aaron Glick, Patrick Catullo and James L.

[26] While LaChanze was eight months pregnant with her second child, Zaya, her husband, securities trader Calvin Gooding, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[31] The two repeated the rare event of mother and child starring in simultaneous Broadway shows, following Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher in 1983.