Broadway star Rebecca Luker dies age 59

The actress and singer was best known for her stage roles in Show Boat, The Sound of Music, and The Music Man

Broadway star Rebecca Luker dies at 59 (Getty Images)

Broadway actress and singer Rebecca Luker, who starred in revivals of Show Boat, The Sound of Music, and The Music Man, has died at age 59.

Luker's death was confirmed by her agent, Sarah Fargo. The actress had announced last February that she had been battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Born on 17 April 1961 in Birmingham, Alabama, the Tony-nominated Luker got her start on Broadway in a 1994 revival of Show Boat, where she played Magnolia. In 2000, she portrayed Marian in The Music Man.

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In 1997, Luker appeared as Adriana in The Boys From Syracuse. Of that role, she memorably told The New York Times, "For the first time in my life, I got to do a bit. Learning to turn to the audience, learning to hold for laughs – I ate it up with a spoon."

At the end of 1998, she played Maria in The Sound of Music. Later the next decade, she portrayed Winifred Banks in Mary Poppins (2006), for which she earned a Tony nomination for best featured actress in a musical.

Luker's final stage role was as a minister's wife in a 2019 Kennedy Center production of Footloose.

A few months after revealing her diagnosis, Luker did a prerecorded Zoom performance called "At Home With Rebecca Luker".

"I think it heals me," she told The New York Times about the act of singing. "It helps me feel like I’m still a part of something."

Luker is survived by her husband Danny Burstein, stepsons, Zachary and Alexander Burstein, her brother Roger, her sister Suzanne Luker, her mother Martha Hales and her stepfather Lamar Hales.