Rita McKenzie, known for staging the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history, died Feb. 17 in Los Angeles days before her 77th birthday. She succumbed to what her family described as a long-term illness.
A powerhouse stage voice and theatrical personality, McKenzie’s 1988 off-Broadway one-woman show, Ethel Merman’s Broadway, became the longest-running one- woman show in theatrical history.
McKenzie had a wide theatrical resume. She played Lita Encore in the Los Angeles premiere of Ruthless! The Musical and reprised the role in the recent New York revival of the show.
She also performed a wide range of stage roles throughout the U..S , including Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, appeared in the 50th Anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun, played Rose in Gypsy, and starred in a three-year U.S. tour of Neil Simon’s The Female Odd Couple, co-starring with Barbara Eden.
Additionally, she was the opening act...
A powerhouse stage voice and theatrical personality, McKenzie’s 1988 off-Broadway one-woman show, Ethel Merman’s Broadway, became the longest-running one- woman show in theatrical history.
McKenzie had a wide theatrical resume. She played Lita Encore in the Los Angeles premiere of Ruthless! The Musical and reprised the role in the recent New York revival of the show.
She also performed a wide range of stage roles throughout the U..S , including Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, appeared in the 50th Anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun, played Rose in Gypsy, and starred in a three-year U.S. tour of Neil Simon’s The Female Odd Couple, co-starring with Barbara Eden.
Additionally, she was the opening act...
- 2/18/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Rita McKenzie, the actress and singer best known for her boisterous performances in the one-woman show Ethel Merman’s Broadway, died Saturday in Los Angeles after a long illness, her husband, talent agent Scott Stander, announced. She was 76.
McKenzie first starred on stage as the powerful Merman — star of such iconic Broadway hits as Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy and Hello, Dolly! — in New York in 1988.
Belting out tunes like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” McKenzie toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia in what many consider the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history.
She also starred in parts that Merman made famous: Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, the gunslinger in a 50th anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun and Rose in Gypsy.
Watch her perform here.
A native of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, McKenzie starred...
McKenzie first starred on stage as the powerful Merman — star of such iconic Broadway hits as Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy and Hello, Dolly! — in New York in 1988.
Belting out tunes like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” McKenzie toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia in what many consider the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history.
She also starred in parts that Merman made famous: Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, the gunslinger in a 50th anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun and Rose in Gypsy.
Watch her perform here.
A native of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, McKenzie starred...
- 2/18/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Patti LuPone says she has resigned from Actors’ Equity.
The three-time Tony Award winner tweeted Monday it was “quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about.”
She added, “Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out,” she said.
A union membership is required to perform in any Broadway production and most professional theaters in the U.S.
The actor later clarified via a spokesperson that she had resigned from the union after the run of Company, which closed on Broadway on July 31. LuPone won her third Tony Award for her portrayal of Joanne in the show.
“When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity,” LuPone said in a statement.
Patti LuPone says she has resigned from Actors’ Equity.
The three-time Tony Award winner tweeted Monday it was “quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about.”
She added, “Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out,” she said.
A union membership is required to perform in any Broadway production and most professional theaters in the U.S.
The actor later clarified via a spokesperson that she had resigned from the union after the run of Company, which closed on Broadway on July 31. LuPone won her third Tony Award for her portrayal of Joanne in the show.
“When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity,” LuPone said in a statement.
- 10/17/2022
- by Caitlin Huston and Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Drama League Awards set themselves apart from other theater industry kudos thanks to their Distinguished Performance Award. The category generally features forty to fifty performers from both Off-Broadway and Broadway productions. Nominees encompass both lead and supporting roles from plays and musicals, and can be of any gender. When one performer rises to the top of this deep roster, they tend to be the frontrunner for one of the acting races at the Tony Awards. This year, Sutton Foster claimed the Distinguished Performance award for “The Music Man.” In the process, the Tony race for Lead Actress in a Musical was just upended.
Most Tony pundits have assumed that Lead Actress in a Musical is a two horse race up until this point. Sharon D Clarke has held a strong lead in our combined odds thanks to her formidable performance in the revival of “Caroline, or Change.” The British...
Most Tony pundits have assumed that Lead Actress in a Musical is a two horse race up until this point. Sharon D Clarke has held a strong lead in our combined odds thanks to her formidable performance in the revival of “Caroline, or Change.” The British...
- 5/23/2022
- by Sam Eckmann
- Gold Derby
To borrow from the great Cole Porter, you’ll get a kick out of Sutton Foster. As the brassy Reno Sweeney, the Younger star is positively ageless in a giddy revival of Porter’s 1930s musical, Anything Goes. When she’s not belting classic tunes, Foster jokes and tirelessly taps her way into musical-comedy heaven. She beams and glows with delight as she delivers this timeless material with verve and blissfully old-fashioned showmanship. Currently packing New York’s Winter Garden Theatre opposite Hugh Jackman in a Tony-nominated smash-hit revival of The Music Man, Foster had an earlier success on Broadway with Anything Goes (winning a 2011 Tony Award), more recently reprising the role on London’s West End (earning a 2022 Olivier Award nomination). In this swank Great Performances presentation, filmed during her run last year at London’s Barbican Theatre, Foster’s wisecracking entertainer Reno (“I’ll be saving sinners twice...
- 5/13/2022
- TV Insider
The West End production of Cabaret featuring Eddie Redmayne leads the roster of 2022 Olivier Awards nominations released Tuesday, with the musical revival scoring 11 nominations.
Winners will be announced April 10 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, marking the first in-person ceremony for the Oliviers since Covid hit two years ago.
See the complete list of nominations below.
In addition to Redmayne, who was nominated in the Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Emcee, Cabaret was nominated for Best Musical Revival, as well as nods for actors Jessie Buckley, Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey. Also nominated were the revival’s costume and scenic designs, sound design, choreography and lighting.
Sutton Foster, currently co-starring with Hugh Jackman in Broadway’s The Music Man, earned a Best Actress in a Musical nomination for her portrayal of Reno Sweeney in the West End revival of Anything Goes.
The complete list of...
Winners will be announced April 10 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, marking the first in-person ceremony for the Oliviers since Covid hit two years ago.
See the complete list of nominations below.
In addition to Redmayne, who was nominated in the Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Emcee, Cabaret was nominated for Best Musical Revival, as well as nods for actors Jessie Buckley, Liza Sadovy and Elliot Levey. Also nominated were the revival’s costume and scenic designs, sound design, choreography and lighting.
Sutton Foster, currently co-starring with Hugh Jackman in Broadway’s The Music Man, earned a Best Actress in a Musical nomination for her portrayal of Reno Sweeney in the West End revival of Anything Goes.
The complete list of...
- 3/8/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
As news of Jessica Walter’s passing traveled across social media, fans of the sharp-tongued, icy, hard-hearted, boozy Lucille Bluth — the Mommie Dearest of “Arrested Development” — responded with GIFs including some of her best quips. “I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it.” “Here’s some money, go see a Star War.” “I’d rather be dead in California than alive in Arizona.” “Get me a vodka rocks… and a piece of toast.” “Sometimes a diet is the best defense.” “It’s one banana, Michael, what could it cost? 10 dollars?”
While Lucille will always be Walter’s most iconic character — not only due to her amazing comic timing and throaty delivery — there was so much more to her impressive six-decade career.
She was terrifying in Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, the 1971 thriller “Play Misty for Me.” A genre precursor to “Fatal Attraction,” Walter impressed in...
While Lucille will always be Walter’s most iconic character — not only due to her amazing comic timing and throaty delivery — there was so much more to her impressive six-decade career.
She was terrifying in Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, the 1971 thriller “Play Misty for Me.” A genre precursor to “Fatal Attraction,” Walter impressed in...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Jessica Walter, award-winning star of stage and screen with six decades in show business, passed away in her sleep in new York City on Wednesday March 24. (Via Deadline.) In recent years, Walter was best known for her Emmy-nominated role as matriarch Lucille Bluth in “Arrested Development,” as well as for voicing Malory Archer on Fxx’s animated series “Archer.” She won an Emmy in 1975 for her leading role in the police drama “Amy Prentiss.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Walter attended New York City’s High School of Performing Arts (now called Laguardia) and further studied acting at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She began her career on Broadway, starring in productions such as “Advise and Consent,” Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” “A Severed Head,” “Nightlife,” “Tartuffe,” “The Royal Family,” and “Photo Finish.”
Her earliest prominent film role came in 1971’s “Play Misty for Me,” in which her...
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Walter attended New York City’s High School of Performing Arts (now called Laguardia) and further studied acting at the famed Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She began her career on Broadway, starring in productions such as “Advise and Consent,” Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” “A Severed Head,” “Nightlife,” “Tartuffe,” “The Royal Family,” and “Photo Finish.”
Her earliest prominent film role came in 1971’s “Play Misty for Me,” in which her...
- 3/25/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
“The folk era had died — or did it?” Allen Ginsberg asks, with a dash of whimsy, in the early portion of Martin Scorsese’s new Rolling Thunder Revue film. His observation accompanies the early, non-faked part of the movie, where we see Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Patti Smith, and even Bette Midler sandwiched into Folk City, a Greenwich Village club that had 170 seats and plenty of history. Although the film doesn’t provide any context, the occasion was a 61st birthday party for venue owner Mike Porco held in 1975, and...
- 6/20/2019
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Sutton Foster, star of TV’s Younger and a two-time Tony Award winner, will co-star with Hugh Jackman in next year’s Broadway revival of The Music Man, Jackman tweeted this morning.
Jackman tweeted a photo of himself (see it above) dancing with Foster with the simple message, “For our next dance…@sfosternyc is #Marian @MusicManBway.” Producer Scott Rudin confirmed the casting.
Foster will play Marian Paroo, or, as one of the show’s songs puts it, “Marian the Librarian.” The role was played by Barbara Cook in the 1957 original production, and by Shirley Jones in the Shirley Jones in the 1962 film version.
See Jackman’s tweet below.
The 2020 revival of the Meredith Wilson musical was announced two weeks ago. Jerry Zaks will direct, with Warren Carlyle choreographing. Preview performances are set to being Wednesday, September 9, 2020 with an official opening on Thursday, October 22, 2020 at a Shubert theatre to be announced.
Jackman tweeted a photo of himself (see it above) dancing with Foster with the simple message, “For our next dance…@sfosternyc is #Marian @MusicManBway.” Producer Scott Rudin confirmed the casting.
Foster will play Marian Paroo, or, as one of the show’s songs puts it, “Marian the Librarian.” The role was played by Barbara Cook in the 1957 original production, and by Shirley Jones in the Shirley Jones in the 1962 film version.
See Jackman’s tweet below.
The 2020 revival of the Meredith Wilson musical was announced two weeks ago. Jerry Zaks will direct, with Warren Carlyle choreographing. Preview performances are set to being Wednesday, September 9, 2020 with an official opening on Thursday, October 22, 2020 at a Shubert theatre to be announced.
- 3/25/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The road to success for Sutton Foster was not always an easy journey, but it was a trip she looks back on with laughter.
“Auditions are terrible. They really are,” the “Younger” star told Variety at New York City Center’s 75th anniversary gala, which included a performance of the Broadway audition musical “A Chorus Line.”
“I was auditioning for the revival of ‘Annie’ back in 1996,” Foster recalled. “I came in and the only sheet music I had was ‘Oklahoma.’ I had on horrible Velcro sandals because it was the ’90s. The director said, ‘I want you to come back. I want you to sing a different song. And, I want you to wear different shoes. And, please bring a picture and resume,’ since I didn’t have one.”
The singular moment on the stage didn’t scare her, but rather galvanized her to kick her career in motion. “I...
“Auditions are terrible. They really are,” the “Younger” star told Variety at New York City Center’s 75th anniversary gala, which included a performance of the Broadway audition musical “A Chorus Line.”
“I was auditioning for the revival of ‘Annie’ back in 1996,” Foster recalled. “I came in and the only sheet music I had was ‘Oklahoma.’ I had on horrible Velcro sandals because it was the ’90s. The director said, ‘I want you to come back. I want you to sing a different song. And, I want you to wear different shoes. And, please bring a picture and resume,’ since I didn’t have one.”
The singular moment on the stage didn’t scare her, but rather galvanized her to kick her career in motion. “I...
- 11/16/2018
- by Elizabeth Taylor
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.