When Walt Disney produced the film version of Mary Poppins in 1964, he cast Oscar nominee Glynis Johns in the role of the caring mother, Mrs. Winifred Banks. 40 years later, when Cameron Mackintosh adapted Mary Poppins for the stage with Disney Theatrical Productions at London’s West End, he cast Linzi Hateley in the role of Mrs. Banks. The success of the London stage production led to Mackintosh reproducing the show for Broadway two years later, in 2006, and for that production, Tony nominee Rebecca Luker was cast as Mrs. Banks. Miss Luker passed away very sadly not too long ago, and I thought today we could explore her career, which fascinatingly spans nearly 40 years!
Rebecca Luker was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 17th, 1961, though she grew up in Helena, which was not far off. Her mother, Martha, had been a high school treasurer and her father, Norse Doak Luker Jr., was a construction worker, so show business didn’t necessarily run in her family. She, however, grew up a lover of music, singing in her church choir and marching in her High School band. She decided to pursue a career in theater when she entered a beauty pageant while she was in High School, singing the song “Much More,” from The Fantasticks. The performance won her a College Scholarship as the first runner-up to Alabama’s Junior Miss.
The scholarship brought her to the University of Montavello and she graduated with a BA in Music, though she took a year off in 1984 to perform in the Michigan Opera Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This production fortunately led to Luker making her Broadway debut in The Phantom of the Opera in the leading role of Christine Daae in 1988, becoming the very first actress to succeed originator Sarah Brightman in the role. When she completed her “Phantom,” run in 1991, she went straight into the original production of the musical The Secret Garden, a show that she was in for two years.
In 1994, Luker was cast in the role of Magnolia in Broadway’s third revival of Jerome Kern’s and Oscar Hammerstein the 2nd’s Show Boat, which earned her very first Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical. This also made Luker the very first actress ever to receive a Tony Nomination for playing the role of Magnolia. She later starred as Maria Rainier Von Trapp in Broadway’s first ever revival of The Sound of Music in 1998, a role for which she was understudied by Laura Benanti. (Benanti later played Baroness Elsa Schrader in NBC’s production of The Sound of Music Live! with Carrie Underwood as Maria.) Prior to starring in this show, Luker also lent her voice to part of the chorus in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997), Disney’s direct-to-video sequel to Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Rebecca opened up the 2000’s, starring in the role of Marian Paroo, the Librarian in the first Broadway revival of The Music Man, starring opposite Craig Bierko as Harold Hill. This role earned her her second Tony Nomination. That same year, she also married fellow Broadway actor, Danny Burstein. She also appeared in the CBS Movie Cupid & Cate (2000) and in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2004. She also performed in various solo concerts, including one that was part of the American Songbook Series. She made her solo cabaret debut at Feinstein’s, receiving extremely positive reviews and winning the Bistro Award for Best Debut Concert. The New York Times even compared her to Julie Andrews and Barbara Cook, whom ironically had originated the role of Marian the Librarian in the Original Broadway Production of “Music Man,” in 1957.
When Luker was finally cast as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins in 2006, she was given a new song to sing called “Being Mrs. Banks,” a song that was composed for the West End Production by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, replacing the film’s original song “Sister Suffragette,” written by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. The song was composed to be an expression of Mrs. Banks feelings about the difficulties and the burden of being a wife and mother of a business-preoccupied husband and two unruly children. The song was written to be sung in the show’s first act, along with a reprise in the second act. Luker’s performance as Mrs. Winifred Banks won her her third Tony Nomination, though first in the category of Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. I had the privilege of getting to see her play Mrs. Banks in March of 2008.
Luker continued acting on Broadway, replacing Victoria Clark in the role of Crazy Marie/Fairy Godmother in the Original Broadway Production of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella from 2013-2014. Her last Broadway appearance was temporarily succeeding Judy Kuhn in the role of Helen Bechdel in the Original Broadway Production of the musical Fun Home in 2016. While she sadly never won a Tony Award, in 2001, she was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame, along with Truman Capote as well as the 1962 film version of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Rebecca Luker passed away due to ALS on December 23rd, 2020 at the age of 59, with her husband and stepchildren by her side. She will always be remembered for her leading lady roles. Ironically, she did an interview with Playbill in which she stated “I am so not a musical theater person. I love rock music and jazz. I love the ‘70s stuff I grew up with.” Who would have thought that musical theater would be her career success?
No comments:
Post a Comment