Loni Ackerman

Loni Ackerman is an American musical theatre performer and cabaret singer born on April 10, 1949, in New York City. Her mother, Cyma Rubin, worked as a theatre and film producer, and her father, Martin Ackerman, was an ophthalmologist. Samuel Rubin served as her stepfather.

Ackerman made her Broadway debut in George M! in 1968, launching a stage career that would span several decades. Her subsequent Broadway credits include the role of Betty Brown in the 1971 revival of No, No, Nanette, Charmin in The Magic Show in 1974, and Wanda in So Long, 174th Street in 1976. Outside of Broadway during this period, she joined the off-Broadway production of Dames at Sea as a replacement in 1970 and was part of the original cast of Starting Here, Starting Now in 1977.

One of the defining roles of her career came when she played the title role in the first U.S. national tour of Evita, which ran from 1980 to 1983. She subsequently stepped into the title role of the Broadway production of Evita as a replacement, performing in that capacity from April to May 1983. Later that year she appeared in the off-Broadway show Diamonds. In September 1991, she returned to Broadway as a replacement for Grizabella in Cats, a credit that marked her final appearance on Broadway. She continued working off-Broadway, appearing in The Petrified Prince in 1994, before stepping away from performing to raise her two sons.

Ackerman returned to the stage in 2011, starring as Norma Desmond in a production of Sunset Boulevard at Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, Long Island. The following year she debuted her cabaret show Next To Ab-normal in New York City. She later appeared in two plays, My Mother, My Sister, and Me in 2016 and To Life in 2019.

Ackerman is married to sound designer Steve Canyon Kennedy. The couple have two sons, Jack and George.