Tony-nominated actress Luker dies
Soprano Rebecca Luker, a three-time Tony nominated actor who starred in some of the biggest Broadway hits of the past three decades, died Wednesday. She was 59. Her death was announced by her husband, veteran Broadway actor Danny Burstein, who said in a statement, “our family is devastated. I have no words at this moment because I’m 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 a best actress Tony nominee in 1995 for playing Magnolia in “Showboat,” a best actress nominee in 2000 for playing Marian in “The Music Man” opposite Craig Bierko, and a best featured actress nominee in 2007 as Winifred Banks in “Mary Poppins.”
Tributes flooded social media, including from Broadway stars like Laura Benanti, who called Luker “humble, loving and kind” with a “golden voice” that would “wrap you in peace.” Seth Rudetsky said it was “a great 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 shows for extended runs. “Yes, I’m the queen of long runs,” she told the Connecticut Post in 2011. “I don’t know if I’m lucky or if it’s a curse. But it’s just how things have happened for me and it is mostly a good thing.”
In 2013, she appeared in an off-broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion.” 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.” Her other off-Broadway credits include “Death Takes a Holiday,” “Indian Blood” and “The Vagina Monologues.”