Karen Mason

Karen Mason is a Broadway actress and cabaret singer whose 14 MAC Awards include six consecutive wins as Major Female Vocalist of the Year, followed by the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. On Broadway she originated the role of Tanya in Mamma Mia!, earning a 2002 Drama Desk nomination, and played nearly 300 performances as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard; her other credits include Wonderland, Hairspray and Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Born in 1951 in New Orleans and raised in St. Louis and Chicago, she began performing in Chicago in 1976 and formed a partnership with pianist and composer Brian Lasser that lasted until his death in 1992. Her eighth album, And All That Jazz (2024), is devoted to the songs of Kander and Ebb, and she has headlined Birdland with her own shows, including birthday concerts.