Rebecca Luker


Rebecca Luker is an American actress, singer and recording artist who has appeared in several musical theatre productions on Broadway. Luker's voice type is soprano. The New York Times has compared her to actresses such as Barbara Cook and Julie Andrews. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards, and she is featured on opera star Plácido Domingo's recording, The Broadway I Love.

Life and career

Luker was born in Helena, Alabama, the daughter of a high school treasurer and a construction worker. She attended the University of Montevallo, earning a BA in music, taking a year off in 1984 to perform in ' as Johanna Barker at the Michigan Opera Theatre.
Luker's Broadway debut was in The Phantom of the Opera in the role of Christine. She was originally an understudy for principal actress Sarah Brightman and her alternate Patti Cohenour. Luker later took over the role after Brightman and Cohenour left the show. Subsequent Broadway roles include Lily in The Secret Garden, Magnolia in Show Boat, Maria in The Sound of Music, Marian in The Music Man, and Claudia in Nine. She played the role of Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins from 2006 to 2010. She later replaced Victoria Clark as Crazy Marie/the Fairy Godmother in the Broadway production of Cinderella for an engagement that lasted from September 2013 to January 2014. Luker joined the cast of Fun Home at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway, temporarily assuming the role of Helen Bechdel from April 5, 2016 to May 22, 2016.
Luker appeared Off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues, Indian Summer, X, Brigadoon, Death Takes a Holiday, and Can't Let Go. During 2002, the Kennedy Center presented a "Sondheim Celebration"; Luker appeared in Passion as Clara. She performed in the New York City Center Encores! staged concerts of The Boys from Syracuse and Where's Charley?. Her TV appearances include Boardwalk Empire, The Good Wife, Matlock, ', and the Hallmark movie Cupid & Cate. She appeared in the 2012 film Not Fade Away. On January 11, 2016, Luker reprised the role of Lily in The Secret Garden at a benefit performance at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
Luker performs in concerts with symphony orchestras around the world; she is also a cabaret performer. Her solo cabaret act, Rebecca Luker Sings Jerome Kern, debuted at 54 Below in New York City. She performed in the concert "Bridge to Broadway", "NEW VOICES at NYU: A Celebration of Songs by NYU Musical Theatre Writers Past and Present", a Rodgers and Hammerstein concert at the Kennedy Center, and a solo concert at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre. Luker won the Bistro Award for her cabaret act at Feinstein's at the Regency which was devoted to female songwriters. She also performed a solo concert in the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center's Allen Room.
Luker, Truman Capote, and To Kill a Mockingbird were the 2001 Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame inductees. She also received a doctorate of fine arts, honoris causa on May 5, 2010 from her alma mater, the University of Montevallo.

Personal life

She married Danny Burstein in June 2000 and has two stepsons, Zachary and Alexander.
In February 2020, Luker announced she had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in late 2019.
In April 2020, Luker's husband, Danny Burstein, contracted COVID-19.  He was subsequently hospitalized at St. Luke's in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan and recovered.  Following his ordeal Burstein wrote an account of it that was published in The Hollywood Reporter. Toward the end of that article, Burstein revealed that as of April 13, 2020, "while I'm getting better, Rebecca has started dealing with the virus as well now. She's not been tested, but has all the symptoms to varying degrees. We are monitoring her closely."

Awards and nominations

Solo recordings