Rita McKenzie, Star of ‘Ethel Merman’s Broadway,’ Dies at 76 

Rita McKenzie, the starlet and vocalist best understood for her lively efficiencies in the one-woman program Ethel Merman’s Broadway, passed away Saturday in Los Angeles after a lengthy ailment, her spouse, talent scout Scott Stander, revealed. She was 76.

McKenzie initially starred on phase as the effective Merman– star of such famous Broadway strikes as Anything Goes, Annie Obtain Your Weapon, Gypsy and Hi, Dolly!– in New york city in 1988.

Vocalizing songs like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” McKenzie explored throughout the united state, Europe and Asia in what lots of think about the longest-running one-woman program in staged background.

She likewise starred partially that Merman made well-known: Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, the gunslinger in a 50th wedding anniversary trip of Annie Obtain Your Weapon and Rose in Gypsy.

See her do below.

An indigenous of Woodbridge Territory, New Jacket, McKenzie starred as Lita Repetition in the Los Angeles best of Callous! The Music and repeated the duty in a New york city rebirth and functioned contrary her friend Barbara Eden in a 3 year united state trip of Neil Simon’s The Women Odd Pair..

McKenzie opened up for the sort of Milton Berle, Don Knotts, Standard Crosby, Donald O’Connor and Steve Allen throughout her occupation and showed up in the Joseph Bologna, Reneé Taylor and Lainie Kazan trip of Bermuda Method Triangular, playing Taylor’s child.

A favored of chamber orchestra conductors, she executed for the Philly, Cincinnati and Baltimore Pops and sang the ending for a PBS Capitol 4th event on the Washington Shopping mall in 1995.

McKenzie played the maid Alice– the duty made well-known by Ann B. Davis– in the 2000 telefilm Unauthorized: Brady Number– The Last Days and appeared in Rodney Dangerfield’s Meet Wally Stimulates (1997) and on episodes of Dad Precious, Frasier, Big Sibling Jake and Caroline in the City.

Most just recently, she acted as meeting host for phase looks of Genuine Homemakers celebrities Vicki Gunvalson, Jill Zarin and Caroline Manzo and for Eden’s On the Magic Carpeting program.

She likewise was a manufacturer along with her spouse for the pre-Broadway trip of Rupert Holmes’ All Points Equal: The Life and Tests of Ruth Bader Ginsburg..

“During the play’s development and rehearsals, Rita’s insights as a savvy theatrical pro and one of the warmest and wittiest humans I’ve had the privilege to know were invaluable in sculpting the piece into the success it has become,” Holmes stated in a declaration.“It is fitting that this tribute to one remarkable woman bears the imprimatur of another remarkable woman: the unforgettable Rita McKenzie.”

Along with her spouse, survivors include her youngsters, Jennifer and Derek; son-in-law Tom and daughter-in-law Vanessa; sibling Nancy; brother-in-law Joe; and grandchildren Mason, Jackson and Thomas.