Whitney Houston Birthday Tribute To Feature NJ’s Raena White

Broadway actress and vocalist Raena White continues to make waves in her career as she returns to Joe’s Pub in New York City for Dear Whitney, a show that will serve as a love letter to the star Whitney Houston on Saturday, Aug 9. The show will feature two performances at 7 and 9:30 p.m. 

In the upcoming show, White will be blending together the classics of the Newark native with arrangements and her own vocal prowess, channeling the spirit of Houston through ballads and anthems that will shine new light on the pop star’s legacy. 

“There is not a singer alive that hasn’t been somewhat impacted by the life and career of Houston,” says White. “She’s been the soundtrack of my life for as long as I can remember. I feel like she doesn’t always get her flowers and gets celebrated enough. She’s inspired so many to become singers, and as such, I think I understand what she had to sacrifice to be Whitney Houston. As an adult, you realize everything she had to achieve and sacrifice in her life.” 

White first performed a solo show at Joe’s Pub in 2023, which became a sold-out event. The idea came when she wondered what a fan letter from her to Houston would have been like had they ever had the chance to communicate. 

“Joe’s Pub is just such a great venue to work with because they’re very pro artists and the setting is very intimate,” she says. “At first, the idea of doing Whitney Houston was out of the question. That was something that was just too sacred to me. The most important thing about this is having fun. While there’s some levity to this show, there’s also establishing the foundation of who Whitney Houston was.” 

White began her journey in music growing up in Detroit, Mich., where she attended Vandenburg Elementary School and participated in the school’s music department. 

“Between the lighting and the music, I was attracted to the idea of having different wardrobes and being somebody else in every performance,” she says.

She continued on this path throughout middle school and high school. She later attended the University of Michigan. There, it was suggested she could gain more experience in New York City due to limited performance opportunities in Michigan.

This led White to build her portfolio by traveling with regional theatre groups across the country. She eventually moved on to roles in off-Broadway shows. She would go on to make her Broadway debut in 2018 as Matron Mama Morton in “Chicago.” 

“I was visiting my mom in Detroit when I first received the news,” she said. “When I got the call from my manager, I got up and ran out of the salon in the mall and may have ended up on a loading dock without realizing it. I thought it was a prank at first. Matron Mama Morton is a role that usually goes to older and more seasoned actors.”

White says she will continue acting. But she knew she had to take a chance and try her hand at music. Singing, she says, is something she’s been doing since the moment she was born.

“I always wanted to record an album and tour, but for a while, I had to think about what I wanted to say,” she says. “I hope I can encourage and teach perseverance. I want people to know that if there’s ever a point in life where you reach rock bottom, it gets better. You can only go up from there and I think people lose sight of that.”

White is currently recording a single and an LP. She is also planning to perform symphony work with Disney for shows based on their films from the 1980s and 1990s. White is also a wife and mother of three boys. She resides with her family in West Orange.

Joe’s Pub is located at 425 Lafayette St. (at Astor Place), New York City. Tickets for the show can be found online at publictheater.org.