... Much of that is due to Kaye's impeccable timing, the delicacy of her yearning and her way with a tuba." Kaye had previously played Mrs. Lovett in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Sweeney in 1991. The New York Times reviewer wrote of her performance there, "it's going to be tough to come up with a Todd and a Mrs. Lovett comparable to George Hearn and Judy Kaye. ... Ms. Kaye's voluptuous voice taps and illuminates musical treasures. The ribaldry, seductiveness and wit of her performance appear thoroughly rooted in Mrs. Lovett's love for Todd." The musical Paradise Found featured Kaye in a production co-directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London from May – June 2010. She appeared in the musical adaption of Tales of the City at the American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, California, from May through July 2011, as Anna Madrigal. She starred in the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, which opened on Broadway in April 2012. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for this role. In September 2014, she joined the Broadway production of Cinderella as the Fairy Godmother and remained with the show till its final performance on January 3, 2015. From February to October 2016, Kaye performed the role of Madame Morrible in the Broadway production of Wicked. She then took over the role of the Dowager Empress in the Broadway production of Anastasia from September 2018 through January 2019. On November 17, 2021, Kaye opened in the Broadway production of Diana,The Musical at the Longacre Theater. She plays the roles of Queen Elizabeth II and the novelist Barbara Cartland, who was Princess Diana's step-grandmother. Opera, operetta, and recordings She has performed frequently in opera, operetta and older musicals, including leading roles in: The Beggar's Opera, Orpheus in the Underworld, Leave It to Jane, Oh, Lady! Lady!!, The Cat and the Fiddle, and Trouble in Tahiti. She appeared in concert at The Town Hall, New York, in Eileen and Sweethearts (1983) and Sweet Adeline (1985). In August 1990 she played Musetta in the Santa Fe Opera production of La Bohème. She debuted the role of Abbie in the premiere of composer Edward Thomas' musical version of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, presented by the New York Opera Repertory Theater in 1989. She performed the title role