Shannon Tavarez
Karen Detrick
The soprano from Queens, New York, who recently played Young Nala in The Lion King on Broadway, passed away after a long battle with acute myeloid leukemia.
Doctors had been unable to find a bone-marrow match for a transplant. Tavarez had received an umbilical-cord transplant in late August as an alternative.
Tavarez's struggle struck a chord with Keys and Rihanna, both of whom started their singing careers at an early age. Both had campaigned to get Tavarez the bone-marrow transplant she needed.
Tavarez made her Broadway debut in September 2009, playing four of eight shows a week in The Lion King until April, when she was diagnosed.
BroadwayWorld.com was the first to report Tavarez's death.
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