Rebecca Luker and Danny Burstein participate in the Tony Awards 2019 at Radio City Music Hall. (Photo by Taylor Hill / FilmMagic,)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Soprano Rebecca Luker, a three-time Tony nominated actress who has starred in some of Broadway’s biggest hits in the past three decades, died on Wednesday. She was 59 years old.
Her death was announced by her husband, veteran Broadway actor Danny Burstein, who said in a statement that “our family is devastated. I have no words at the moment because I am numb.” Luker went public in 2020 saying she had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Luker was nominated for Tony for best actress in 1995 in the role of Magnolia in “Showboat”, was nominated for best actress in 2000 for playing Marian in “The Music Man” opposite Craig Bierko, and was nominated for best actress in 2007 as Winifred Banks in “Mary Poppins.”
Tributes flooded social media, including Broadway stars like Laura Benanti, who called Luker “humble, loving and kind” with a “golden voice” that “would involve you in peace”. Seth Rudetsky said it was “a big loss for Broadway and the world”. Kristin Chenoweth tweeted that Luker was “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a soprano” and Bernadette Peters called her “one of the most beautiful voices on Broadway and a lovely person”.
Luker was known for staying with programs for long periods. “Yes, I’m the queen of long runs,” she told the Connecticut Post in 2011. “I don’t know if I’m lucky or a curse. But it’s just how things went for me and it’s mostly a good thing. “
In 2013, she appeared in an off-Broadway revival of “Passion” by Stephen Sondheim. In addition to many stage credits, Luker appeared on TV in “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Good Wife” and in the 2012 film “Not Fade Away”. His other off-Broadway credits include “Death Takes a Holiday”, “Indian Blood” and “The Vagina Monologues”.
Broadway star Stephanie J. Block called Luker “angel-like and angel-like” and LaChanze used Twitter to call Luker’s death “a big loss for American theater”. Tony Cerveris, Tony winner, said: “There was no one more humble, more unexpectedly funny or more glorious when she sang.”
Luker and her husband starred in an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, in which they played the parents of a transgender young man killed in an accident after being bullied.
Luker was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and graduated in music from the University of Montevallo, where he later obtained an honorary doctorate.
Luker made his Broadway debut in 1988 in “The Phantom of the Opera”, first as a replacement for Sarah Brightman and then playing Christine alongside the legendary Michael Crawford. “I will never forget. It was an out-of-body experience. He was so kind, though, and I will never forget that,” she told Playbill in 2016.
She had Broadway roles in “The Sound of Music” and as the original Lily in “The Secret Garden”. She was a replacement for “Nine” in 2003 alongside Antonio Banderas, “Fun Home” in 2016 and “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” in 2013-14.
His albums include “Greenwich Time”, “Leaving Home”, “Anything Goes: Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter” and “I Got Love: Songs of Jerome Kern”, with 14 classics since “Bill / Can’t Help Loving That Man” “to” My husband’s first wife. “She also paid tribute to the legendary Barbara Cook at Kennedy Center Honors 2011.
His final role on stage was to play the narrow-minded wife of a small-town minister in the Kennedy Center’s 2019 production of “Footloose”. His last performance was in June at Zoom’s charity performance, “At Home With Rebecca Luker”.
In addition to her husband, Luker leaves two stepsons, Alex and Zach.