Marin Mazzie

Marin Joy Mazzie (October 9, 1960 – September 13, 2018) was an American actress and singer whose Broadway career spanned three decades, from 1985 to 2015. Born in Rockford, Illinois, Mazzie began singing in church choir at age 8 and started studying voice at 12. She trained at Western Michigan University, earning degrees in theater and music, and gained early stage experience as an apprentice at the Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, where she became acquainted with composer Jonathan Larson, who later wrote Rent.

Following her 1982 graduation, Mazzie relocated to New York City and made her New York stage debut the following year in an Equity Library Theatre revival of Where's Charley?, playing Kitty Verdun. She appeared in the 1991 off-Broadway Kander and Ebb revue And the World Goes 'Round and subsequently toured in the production for ten months. Her Broadway debut came in 1985 in Big River, in which she played Mary Jane Wilkes as a replacement. That same year she participated in regional revivals of Merrily We Roll Along at the La Jolla Playhouse and Arena Stage. She later joined the Broadway cast of Into the Woods in 1989 as a replacement, playing Rapunzel and understudying several other roles.

Mazzie earned three Tony Award nominations over the course of her career. The first came for her origination of the role of Clara in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1994, a production that also marked her in a notable opening scene opposite co-star Jere Shea. Her second nomination followed her work as Mother in the original Broadway production of Ragtime in 1998, with music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. The third nomination recognized her performance in the dual roles of Lilli Vanessi and Katharine in the 1999 Broadway revival of Kiss Me, Kate, for which she also received a Drama Desk Award nomination, an Olivier Award nomination, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. She reprised those roles when the Kiss Me, Kate production transferred to London's West End in 2001.

Mazzie's Broadway credits extended well beyond those three nominated performances. She played Aldonza in a 2002 revival of Man of La Mancha and appeared in the Broadway drama ENRON in 2010 as corporate vice president Claudia Roe. Later that year, on July 19, 2010, she replaced Alice Ripley as Diana in Next to Normal, performing opposite her husband, Jason Danieley, who played Dan; the two remained with the production until it closed on January 16, 2011. In 2014 she originated the role of Helen Sinclair in Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical, the Woody Allen and Susan Stroman production that ran from April to August of that year. She also appeared in a Broadway concert presentation of On the Twentieth Century in 2005, playing Mildred Plotka/Lily Garland, and joined the cast of Spamalot as a replacement Lady of the Lake from 2006 to 2008.

Among her notable non-Broadway stage work, Mazzie played Guenevere in the New York Philharmonic's staged concert of Camelot in May 2008, opposite Gabriel Byrne as King Arthur and Nathan Gunn as Lancelot, in a production directed by Lonny Price. The May 8 performance was broadcast nationally on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center. She appeared in the off-Broadway revival of Carrie in 2012 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre as Margaret White, a role she had first performed in a 2009 reading of the reworked production. In 2015 she played The Leader in an Encores! production of Zorba. The following year she assumed the role of Anna Leonowens from Kelli O'Hara in the Lincoln Center revival of The King and I, beginning performances on May 3, 2016, and remaining with the show through its closing on June 26, 2016. Her final stage appearance was as Misia Sert in the off-Broadway production Fire and Air in 2018.

Mazzie also maintained an active concert and cabaret career, frequently performing alongside her husband, Jason Danieley, whom she had met in 1996 while both appeared in Trojan Women: A Love Story. The two released a cabaret album, Opposite You, on the PS Classics label in November 2005. Mazzie performed at the 1998 Carnegie Hall gala concert My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies, hosted by Julie Andrews, and participated in Sondheim! The Birthday Concert in March 2010, singing We're Gonna Be Alright from Do I Hear a Waltz? with Danieley and Losing My Mind from Follies; the concert was broadcast on PBS's Great Performances in November 2010. In 2015 she released a solo album, Make Your Own Kind of Music, as part of the Live at 54 Below series. A recording she made with Danieley titled Broadway and Beyond was released posthumously in 2019.

On television, Mazzie and Kevin Nealon appeared in recurring roles as an antagonistic neighbor couple on the sitcom Still Standing. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017 at a ceremony held at the Gershwin Theatre. In April 2019 it was announced that Mazzie would receive a posthumous Special Tony Award recognizing her advocacy for women's health. Mazzie died on the morning of September 13, 2018, after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. On September 19, 2018, the lights of every Broadway theatre dimmed for one minute at 6:45 p.m. in her honor.