The last couple of years have been great for Broadway as New York City’s theater industry has rebounded from to pre-pandemic attendance levels and produced dozens of unique and memorable shows, including Kimberly Akimbo, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2023; Shucked; and Fat Ham. At the same time, classics like Chicago and Wicked continue to draw large crowds at the Ambassador Theatre and Gershwin Theatre, where they’ve been running since 2003.
It hasn’t been all good news in the theater world, however, as Broadway lost several renowned actors, producers, and writers, many of whom won Tony awards, in the last year. Below is a brief look back at the careers of six Broadway icons who recently passed.
Chita Rivera
A three-time Tony-winning performer who has been in several iconic musicals throughout her seven-decade career, Chita Rivera died January 30, 2024 at 91 years old. The Committee of Theatre Owners, along with the entire Broadway community, paid tribute to Rivera by dimming the lights at all Broadway venues for one minute at 7:45 p.m. on February 17. The Princess of Wales Theatre and Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto also dimmed their lights for Rivera, who performed in Canada’s largest city as part of the 1999 Chicago revival and a 1992 pre-Broadway trial of Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Rivera won one of her two performance-based Tony Awards for Kiss of the Spider Woman and the other for The Rink. She also starred as Anita in West Side Story, Claire in The Visit, and Rose in Bye Bye Birdie. She received the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2018 and earned other prestigious accolades, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Drama League’s Distinguished Performance Award.
Beyond being known for her captivating performances and singing and dancing abilities, Rivera is remembered as a trailblazing Latin performer who stood out during an age when most of her fellow actors and actresses were Caucasian.
Hinton Battle
Another three-time Tony Award winner, Hinton Battle passed away in January 2024. Battle, 67, won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Miss Saigon, The Tap Dance Kid, and Sophisticated Ladies, the latter two of which he toured nationwide. Known for his athletic and energetic dancing style, Battle was not only a force on the stage but also excelled as a choreographer, and director. He worked with iconic choreographers Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett and staged choreography for the Outkast-led movie-musical Idlewild, a musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards.
Battle directed Respect, a musical exploring the power of women in society from the 1990s into the mid-2000s, and co-directed the off-Broadway show Evil Dead The Musical. He also co-founded a dance academy in Japan and received several other awards for his work, including the NAACP Image Award, Fred Astaire Award, and the Amas 2014 Rosie Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Sarah Rice
Performer Sarah Rice, mostly known for playing Johanna in the original Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, died at 68 years old on January 6, 2024. Rice received a Theatre World Award for her performance as Johanna in 1979. Although this was her first and only role in a Broadway production, Rice appeared in many other off- and off-off-Broadway productions, including Hang On to Your Ribbons, The Fantasticks, The Sound of Music, and A Little Night Music.
A talented soprano singer, Rice also performed with the Dallas Opera, Central City Opera, and Gran Teatro la Fenice in Italy. She regularly performed in cabaret shows in New York City and won multiple awards, including the 2011 Mac Award, for her solo show.
Sheldon Harnick
One of the most renowned Broadway lyricists of his generation, Sheldon Harnick passed away on June 23, 2023. The Music Box Theatre held a memorial for the nine-time Tony Award nominee on November 9 featuring guests such as Danny Burstein, Jason Danieley, Jessica Hecht, and Deborah Grace Winer. Harnick won Tony Awards for his work on Fiddler on the Roof and Fiorello! and earned a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre in 2016. He also received lifetime honors from the Outer Critics Circle and Drama League.
Harnick earned six Grammy nominations and won Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album for She Loves Me at the 6th Grammy Awards. He also had one platinum record, three gold records, and won a pair of New York Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Joanna Merlin
Joanna Merlin, a legendary casting director who worked regularly with Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim, died at 92 years old in October 2023. She was a faculty member with the New York University Graduate Acting program. Merlin met Prince while performing in the original production of Fiddler on the Roof, of which Prince produced. She briefly left Broadway to raise her two children, but Prince enticed her to return as his primary casting director. Subsequently, she cast each of his Sondheim productions, including Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, and Merrily We Roll Along. She also cast films such as Big Trouble in Little China and The Last Emperor.