Posted: 12/23/20 at 3:08pm
I have the same story as Jorge... I saw Mary Poppins all those years ago and had no idea I was seeing Luker on stage. What a treasure, she will be missed. All the love in the world to Danny and his children.
Posted: 12/23/20 at 3:20pm
What a devastating loss. Man, screw 2020.
Posted: 12/23/20 at 5:22pm
RIP. (I especially enjoyed Anything Goes: Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter.)
Posted: 12/23/20 at 6:01pm
She was amazing as Christine in Phantom. RIP Rebecca
Posted: 12/23/20 at 6:27pm
This death hit me really hard. I knew she was not doing well a couple months ago based on updates I saw on social media, but I was really hoping she would survive to see Danny (hopefully) win the Tony Award this year.
I use to listen to The Secret Garden non-stop in high school. I got to see Rebecca in Mary Poppins in 2007 and was so amazed to see her live. It was my first trip to New York City and seeing her was one of the highlights (if not THE highlight) of the trip.
You will be missed. Listening to your voice has gotten me through a lot over the years.
Posted: 12/23/20 at 7:30pm
Posted: 12/23/20 at 7:54pm
Posted: 12/23/20 at 8:30pm
I was always amazed at her breath control in the opening of THE SECRET GARDEN's cast recording:
Clusters of crocus, (breath)
Purple and gold (breath)
Blankets of pansies, (breath)
Out from the cold. Lilies and iris, Safe from the chill. (breath)
Safe in my garden, (Breath)
Snowdrops so still.
She was able to sing "Out from the cold....." all the way to "chill" without taking a breath; and "cold" was a long high note. I always expected her to take a breath after "iris" but she brought the "s" at the end of "iris" right into the "s" at the beginning of "safe" with no breath. Of course, she couldn't do it in the theater singing it live.....or so I thought. But every time I saw the show (and I saw it more than ten times) she did it exactly like on the recording. How did she have that much air?? I've been marveling about that since I first heard her sing back in the early 90s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdkzH_3etZM
She did something equally remarkable in "Come to My Garden". When she sings the entire phrase, "There I'll see you safely grown, and on your way" (shouldn't she take a breath after 'way' ? YES, but SHE DOESN'T!!) "stay there in my garden" (Finally she breathes!!) Yeah, but she couldn't do that in the theater. WRONG AGAIN!! She did it every time I saw the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwTRg-i2JG4
I listened to that CD until I knew it by heart before I ever saw her in the show, and I thought they must have done some studio trickery to make it sound like she was singing without actually breathing. But, when she does it LIVE in the theater! That was an amazing voice and an amazing singer! That moment at the end of "Come to My Garden" where the lights slowly come down at the end of the song, and there is just one tiny spot on Lily and Colin as he falls asleep in her arms, brought tears to my eyes every time I saw the show. In fact, I think it was for that moment that I kept going back to see the show over and over. She was simply amazing. So sad to hear she has passed. RIP.
Updated On: 12/23/20 at 08:30 PM
Posted: 12/24/20 at 1:50am
I had a great crush on Rebecca when she came to New York with the famed Prince Show Boat. She sang Magnolia so beautifully and was nominated for Best Actress Musical but unfortunately was up against Glenn Close for Sunset Boulevard. I shared her love for Jerome Kern and I often listen to her 2013 (that long ago?) recording "I Got Love," a treasure of Kern songs well known and a few not so well known.
I don't think anyone has mentioned her performance in Encore's The Boys From Syracuse, which brought two gems: Rebecca's signature recording of Rodgers and Hart's "Falling in Love with Love," among the very few best recordings of the song ever made and the playful "Sing For Your Supper" in which she lead a trio.in a way that she suggested that she could have shined in musicals besides the wholesome ones in which she was usually cast,
Here are Rebecca at her peak, Audra and Mary Testa performing "Sing For Your Supper" as arranged for Encores.
Sing For Your Supper
Sorry, this link did not work on the App.
Updated On: 12/25/20 at 01:50 AM
Posted: 12/25/20 at 4:08am
Incredibly heartbreaking- she wasn't always my favorite in everything she was in but she had an incredible impact on me over time none the less and was a great inspiration. She was an amazing artist, rest in peace.
Posted: 10/23/23 at 9:20pm
Completely randomly, I came across an old Hallmark commercial from 1997 and my reaction was, wait… is that Rebecca Luker? What a presence she was, even for a few corny seconds.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ss7C7ZKXl9I&si=N-G_HaFlzj9wfbx4
