Sarah Rice

Sarah Rice (March 5, 1955 – January 6, 2024) was an American theatre actress born in Okinawa, Japan, where her father was stationed as a member of the U.S. Air Force. Before her first birthday, the family relocated to Arizona, where Rice grew up alongside a sister and two brothers. After a year of college and some experience in amateur productions, she moved to New York City at age 18, initially intending to pursue classical dance through her ballet training.

Among Rice's earliest stage roles was Luisa in The Fantasticks. Her Broadway career centered on the original 1979 production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, in which she created the role of Johanna. That performance earned her a Theatre World Award in 1979. She was also associated with Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

Beyond Broadway, Rice performed in John Kenley and Robert Noll's The Phantom of the Opera-The Play in Montreal. Her operatic work included productions of The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, and The Student Prince, and she performed with Michigan Opera Theater, Central City Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera.

Rice became a fixture on the New York cabaret circuit. Her solo cabaret debut, Screen Gems: Songs of Old Hollywood, earned her a 2010 Bistro Award and a 2011 MAC Award for Female Vocalist. She also created and performed Glamorous Nights & Careless Rapture, a program centered on the music of Ivor Novello and Noel Coward, and Music of the Night, in which she both sang and played the Theremin, an instrument played without physical contact. She made multiple guest appearances in the Sondheim Unplugged series at 54 Below, and her voice appears on the Grammy-nominated Sondheim Unplugged recording. She participated in the Mabel Mercer Foundation's Cabaret Convention on several occasions, including its Sondheim Evening.

In 2019, Rice collaborated with fellow Broadway performers Carole Demas and Hal Robinson on Thank You for Your Love, a show celebrating the work of Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, with whom all three had worked across numerous productions including The Fantasticks. The show received a Bistro Award. Rice died of cancer in New York City on January 6, 2024, at the age of 68.