With the Pasadena Playhouse rising up from the ashes of bankruptcy, it’s no surprise that they invited Leslie Uggams back. The Tony and Emmy Award-winner broke box office records for the Playhouse during her 2009 portrayal of  actress and singer Lena Horne in “Stormy Weather”).

The pre-Broadway run of “Stormy Weather” holds the record for advance single ticket sales prior to opening night for the Playhouse and the highest gross of the entire run.

Although Uggams never heard directly how the late Horne felt about the play and Uggams performance, she felt no news was good news. No complaints from Horne’s daughter or Horne’s friends and contemporaries. Horne actually touched Uggams life in many ways. Uggams won a Tony for “Hallelujah Baby!”—in the lead role that had been meant for Horne.

In a recent telephone interview, Uggams commented that Horne had been a great icon when she was growing up and felt that people should know about this “great trailblazer.” Uggams blazed a few trails herself. That became clear when she prepared for what was supposed to be a one-night performance at Lincoln Center’s Jazz in New York City. That’s how her currently one-woman autobiographical show, “Uptown Downtown,” was first conceived.

From 1961-1966, Uggams gained national attention as a regular on the NBC TV show, “Sing Along with Mitch.” Uggams was once considered for the lead role of the 1963 film “Cleopatra” that eventually went to Elizabeth Taylor.  Another black actress, Dorothy Dandridge, was in the running. Both were considered controversial choices because of their race.

“Sing Along with Mitch”

Nat King Cole was the first African American to host a national variety show in 1956, and Leslie Uggams was the second African American host but the first African American woman. The show lasted only one season (Cole’s lasted a little over a year) and you can find videos of her on YouTube.  Uggams blazed a trail for women like Oprah. Uggams show featured predominately African American performers and featured a segment about a middle-class African American family, “Sugar Hill.”

Robert Clary and Werner Klemperer on “The Leslie Uggams Show”

Bob Crane and John Banner

Uggams later played Kizzy in the much acclaimed  1977 TV miniseries “Roots” based on Alex Haley’s novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family.” Kizzy was the daughter of an African warrior who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Maryland in 1750s.

Uggams and Sandy Duncan in “Roots”

“It was a ground-breaking story about Americans…. Instead of showing black people as uneducated slaves, it showed how we came from royalty and were kidnapped or abducted yet still managed to survive. That kind of history didn’t get into school books and still doesn’t get into school books,” Uggams commented.

“Roots” won a Golden Globe, a Peabody Award and won nine Emmy Awards out of 36 nominations.  Uggams was nominated, but didn’t win that year. She’d have to wait until 1983 when she received a Daytime Emmy as a host for a variety series., “Fantasy,” a show where ordinary people wrote in to have their wishes granted on national TV.

On stage, Uggams played opposite James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader to generations of geeks, in the 2005 Broadway revival of “On Golden Pond.” Earlier, in 2001, she also starred in August Wilson’s “King Hedley II,” receiving a Tony nomination.

Times have changed. Although Uggams never thought she’d see a black president in her lifetime—a moment that made her proud to be American, wishing her mother and father had been alive to see it—she thought having major movie stars like Will Smith and Denzel Washington “had to happen.” She loves that African Americans are now represented when you turn on the TV or go to the movies.

Leslie Uggams on “The Muppet Show”

Uggams promises there will be glimpses of famous people such as Ella Fitzgerald and events such as her TV appearances and Broadway shows. Of course, she won’t reveal all because what would the show be without a few surprises?

Besides that, expect plenty words of wisdom. Uggams has beat the odds by remaining married for 45 years to the same man, Grahame Pratt. They have two children, Danielle Chambers and Justice Pratt. Her secret to that marital success? She said, “Don’t settle. Be patient and be careful.” She considers her husband her best friend and they genuinely “like each other.”

Uggams didn’t grumble and sound angry about any of the trials she faced, coming up from the Harlem Apollo Theater to Broadway, missing out on parts because of racism. Instead, she was positive and sure that things would get better. Some day, she will write her autobiography. This show is the first baby step in that direction, but Uggams still has no hard plans. After all, she has an indie movie coming out where she plays the wise grandmother and who knows where this show, “Uptown Downtown” will go?