Marcia Lewis

• Name — Marcia Lewis • Born — 18 August 1938 • Birthplace — Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S. • Died — 21 December 2010 • Place of death — Brentwood, Tennessee, U.S. • Occupation — Nurse, actress, singer • Years Active — 1964–2006 • Spouse — Fred D. Bryan (2001–2010; her death)

Lewis was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She earned her RN from Jewish Hospital School of Nursing in Cincinnati in 1959 and worked as a registered nurse at the University of Cincinnati Hospital (Ohio) and Mount Sinai Hospital (NYC).

Lewis made her Broadway debut in the original production of Hello, Dolly!, taking over the role of Ernestina. Additional theater credits include The Time of Your Life (1969), Annie, taking over the role of Miss Hannigan in April 1981, Rags (1986) (nominee, Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical), Roza (1987), Orpheus Descending with Vanessa Redgrave (1989), and the 1990 revival of Fiddler on the Roof as Golde. Lewis appeared in the 1994 revival of Grease as Miss Lynch, and was nominated for the Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She appeared as the Matron in the 1996 revival of Chicago. For her work, she received nominations for the Tony Award, Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. She appeared at the Off-Broadway Theatre of the Zanies in An Impudent Wolf (1965), the Players Theatre in Who's Who Baby? (1968), and Playwrights Horizons in Romance Language in 1984 and When She Danced in 1990. Lewis toured in Cabaret as Fraulein Schneider and appeared in Chicago at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, for three months. Her television credits include guest appearances on The Bob Newhart Show (1975), Baretta (1975), The Bionic Woman (1976), Happy Days (1977, 1979), the TV movie When She Was Bad (1979) and Kate and Allie (1988).

As a singer, Lewis performed in most of the leading cabarets and supper clubs in Manhattan, including Rainbow & Stars, Upstairs at the Duplex, Upstairs at the Downstairs, Grande Finale, Reno Sweeney's, Freddy's Eighty-Eights, Town Hall, The Village Gate, and the Russian Tea Room. Lewis also appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall. Lewis' solo album Nowadays (1998), a collection of showtunes and standards recorded with the Mark Hummel Quartet, is available on the Original Cast Records label. Lewis married her second husband, Fred D. Bryan, a Nashville financial adviser, on June 24, 2001. Lewis died on December 21, 2010, at her home in Brentwood, Tennessee, of cancer, aged 72. Bryan survived her.

• Year — Title — Role — Venue — Ref. • 1965 — An Impudent Wolf — Grandma — Off-Broadway, Theatre of the Zanies • 1966 — Hello, Dolly! — Ernestina — Broadway, St. James Theatre • 1968 — Who's Who Baby? — Performer — Off-Broadway, Players' Theatre • 1969 — The Time of Your Life — Lorene — Broadway, Vivian Beaumont Theatre • 1981 — Annie — Miss Hannigan — Broadway, Alvin Theatre • 1984 — Romance Language — Emma Stebbins, Ellen Emerson, and a Dancehall Girl — Off-Broadway, Playwrights Horizons • 1986 — Rags — Rachel Halpern — Broadway, Mark Hellinger Theatre • 1987 — Roza — Madame Katz — Broadway, Royale Theatre • 1989 — Orpheus Descending — Nurse Porter — Broadway, Neil Simon Theatre • 1990 — Fiddler on the Roof — Golde — Broadway, Gershwin Theatre • When She Danced — Mary — Off-Broadway, Playwrights Horizons • 1994 — Grease — Miss Lynch — Broadway, Eugene O'Neill Theatre • 1995 — Big City Rhythm — Performer — Off-Broadway, Triad Theatre • 1996 — Chicago — Matron 'Mama' Morton — Off-Broadway, New York City Center • Broadway, Richard Rodgers Theatre • 1997 — U.S. National Tour • 2004 — Annie — Miss Hannigan — U.S. National Tour