Marin Mazzie

Marin Joy Mazzie (October 9, 1960 – September 13, 2018) was an American actress and singer known for her work in musical theater.

Mazzie was a three-time Tony Award nominee, for her performances as Clara in Passion (1994), Mother in Ragtime(1998), and Lilli Vanessi/Katherine in Kiss Me, Kate (2000). For her work in Kiss Me, Kate, Mazzie was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award and Olivier Award, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award.

In addition to appearing in many musical stage productions, Mazzie also performed in concert with her husband, Jason Danieley.

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Early life

Mazzie was born in Rockford, Illinois and graduated from Western Michigan University, where she received degrees in theater and music. With an early interest in the theatre, Mazzie began to perform and sing in church choir at the age of 8 and to study voice at the age of 12. She continued to act in school and at college and in summer stock, where she was an apprentice at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan. While performing at the Barn, Mazzie befriended composer Jonathan Larson, who would go on to write Rent.

Career

After graduating from college in 1982, Mazzie moved to New York City and made her New York stage debut in a 1983 Equity Library Theatre revival of the 1948 musical Where's Charley? as Kitty Verdun. She appeared in the 1991 off-Broadway Kander and Ebb revue And The World Goes 'Round and the subsequent 10-month national tour the following year. She went on to play starring roles in over a half dozen Broadway shows and also developed a cabaret act and made appearances in television.

In 1994 Mazzie created the role of Clara in the Stephen Sondheim musical Passion. This production was notable for its opening scene in which she was nude in bed with co-star Jere Shea. In 1998 Mazzie originated the role of Mother in the original production of Lynn Ahrens and Steven Flaherty's musical, Ragtime. She played the dual roles of Lilli Vanessi/Katharine in the 1999 revival of Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway, and then transferred to the West End production in 2001. All three roles earned her Tony Award nominations.

In the 2006 Encores! presentation of Kismet at New York City Center, the Variety reviewer wrote: "Mazzie steals the comic thunder with a delicious turn as the glamorous Slut of the Casbah (Lalume), lewdly checking out the tasty man-slaves and happily playing along with Hajj's trickery, simply because he's hot. Looking dynamite in a flashy gold Donatella-goes-Mesopotamian number and a soufflé of blond curls, Mazzie's campy delivery of 'Not Since Nineveh' and the beyond-jaded 'Bored' succeeds in briefly raising the temperature of the otherwise tepid brew."

In May 2008 she appeared as Guenevere opposite Gabriel Byrne as King Arthur and Nathan Gunn as Lancelot in the New York Philharmonic staged concert presentation of Lerner & Loewe's Camelot, directed by Lonny Price. The May 8, 2008 performance of this production was broadcast nationally on Live from Lincoln Center on PBS.

Mazzie appeared in the drama ENRON, opening on Broadway in April 2010, as corporate vice president Claudia Roe. She replaced Alice Ripley as Diana in Next to Normal on July 19, 2010 opposite her real-life husband Jason Danieley as Dan. They stayed with the show until the Broadway production closed on January 16, 2011.

On November 20, 2009 Mazzie performed in a reading of a re-worked version of the 1988 Broadway flop Carrie as Margaret White. She stayed with the production which opened Off-Broadway on March 1, 2012 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

Mazzie appeared as Helen Sinclair in the Woody Allen/Susan Stroman musical Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical, which ran on Broadway from April to August 2014.

Mazzie assumed the lead role of Anna Leonowens from Kelli O'Hara in the Lincoln Center revival of The King and I. Mazzie began performances on May 3, 2016 and stayed with the show until it closed on June 26, 2016.

She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for 2017, in a ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre held in November 2017.

Concerts, TV, and recordings

Mazzie also appeared on television. In the sitcom Still Standing, Mazzie and Kevin Nealon played an antagonistic neighbor couple in recurring roles.

She regularly performed in cabaret and concerts. For example, she and her husband, Jason Danieley, along with Faith Prince, performed a concert as a tribute to Jerry Herman in October–November 2003 in Utah with the Utah Symphony. This was similar to the Herman tribute Mazzie performed with the Boston Pops in May 2003.

Mazzie and her husband performed at the Bay Area Cabaret (San Francisco) season on October 23, 2005, performing their "Opposite You" program. In November 2005 they released an album, Opposite You (P.S. Classics label), consisting of songs sung in their cabaret program.

Personal life

Mazzie was married to fellow Broadway actor Jason Danieley, whom she met in 1996 in a play they performed together, Trojan Women: A Love Story.

Mazzie died on the morning of September 13, 2018 following a three-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Stage appearances (selected)

Note: Broadway unless noted

• Big River (1985): Mary Jane Wilkes (replacement)
• Into the Woods (1987): Rapunzel (replacement)
• Passion (1994): Clara (original)
• Out of This World (Encores! staged concert) (1995): Helen
• Ragtime (1998): Mother (original)
• Kiss Me, Kate (revival) (1999): Lilli Vanessi/Katharine
• Man of La Mancha (revival) (2002): Aldonza (Dulcinea) (replacement)
• 110 in the Shade (revival, Los Angeles) (2004): Lizzie Curry
• Brigadoon (revival, Los Angeles) (2004): Fiona MacLaren
• Spamalot (2006–2008): The Lady of the Lake (replacement)
• Camelot (New York Philharmonic staged concert) (2008): Guenevere
• ENRON (2010): Claudia Roe (original)
• Next to Normal (2010): Diana Goodman (replacement)
• Carrie (revival, off-Broadway) (2012): Margaret White
• Bullets Over Broadway (original) (2014): Helen Sinclair
• The King and I (revival) (2016): Anna Leonowens (replacement)