Marin Mazzie Dies: Broadway Star of Passion, Ragtime

September 13, 2018 1:24pm Deadline Hollywood

Broadway actress and three-time Tony nominee Marin Mazzie died this morning in New York. She was 57.

Her death was announced by her husband, actor Jason Danieley. Mazzie had been fighting ovarian cancer since her diagnosis three years ago.

Lauded for her unforgettable performances in Ragtime, Kiss Me, Kate and, perhaps most of all, Stephen Sondheim?s 1994 musical Passion, Mazzie was mourned today by Broadway. ?This is absolutely devastating,? tweeted Patti Murin of Frozen. ?What a bright, shining light she was??

?Beautiful, brave and inspiring,? wrote Harvey Fierstein. ?A glorious voice and an even better human being??

Mazzie made her Broadway debut in 1985 in the Huckleberry Finn musical Big River. She earned her first Tony nomination nine years later for her performance as Clara in Passion, and her second in 1998 as Mother in Ragtime. Her starring role in 1999?s Kiss Me, Kate brought her third nomination.

Other stage credits include 2002?s Man of La Mancha (which reteamed her with Ragtime?s Brian Stokes Mitchell), Spamalot, Next to Normal, Off Broadway?s revival of Carrie and, just this year and also Off Broadway, Terrence McNally?s Fire and Air.

Mazzie was inducted into New York?s Theater Hall of Fame last year. She met Danieley when both appeared in the Off Broadway 1996 production Trojan Women: A Love Story. They married the following year, and later would perform in concert together.

The actress is survived by Danieley, her mother and a brother.

Editor?s note:

I first met Marin Mazzie in the ladies room of the Hilton Hotel during the 1995 Drama Desk awards.

I lavished her companion, Donna Murphy, with compliments on her performance in Passion. To be polite I asked the woman with her if she were connected to theater. You can imagine my embarrassment when I learned who she was.

I must have experienced a Sapphic moment, shocked and mesmerized when Mazzie, appeared partially nude onstage. She was perfection. And so, like so many others, I paid little attention to her face

But I did pay attention after that to all her roles and most recently saw her in a concert in Carnegie Hall, shocked by her beauty and vitality into believing she was better. Alas! Now she is gone ? yet another shock.

Jeanne Lieberman

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