Barbara Cook, Luminous Soprano & Original Music Man Star, Dies at 89

Barbara Cook, the pristine-voiced Tony winner and Olivier Award nominee known for originating such iconic roles as Marian Paroo in The Music Man and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, died on August 8. The cause, according to The New York Times, was respiratory failure. She was 89. 

Born on October 25, 1927 in Atlanta, Georgia, Cook began singing at an early age, receiving acclaim from audiences at the nearby Elks Club. In 1948, while visiting New York City with her mother, she decided to stay put and seek acting work. Cook was hired by a series of resorts, eventually landing a gig in 1950 at the Blue Angel Club.

A year later, Cook was on Broadway, making her debut in the 1951 musical Flahooley. Shortly after, she played Ado Annie in a Broadway revival of Oklahoma! (1953), later reprising her turn on a national tour.


Barbara Cook as Ado Annie in the 1953 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!

Cook's Broadway career followed with a now legendary performance in the original 1956 Broadway production of Candide. Cook introduced perhaps her most iconic role in 1957, that of the strong-minded librarian Marian Paroo in The Music Man. The performance won Cook a 1958 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

Cook's extensive list of Broadway credits also included performances as both Carrie Pipperidge (1953) and Julie Jordan (1957) in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel. Cook earned acclaim for originating the role of Liesl Brandel in The Gay Life (1961) and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me (1963).


Barbara Cook as Amalia Balash in the original 1963 Broadway production of She Loves Me

After a number of years playing roles on Broadway, Cook focused her career more toward the concert arena and away from traditional musicals. Her final Broadway role in a book musical was as Dolly Talbo in The Grass Harp (1971). In her later years, she became known as one of the foremost interpreters of Sondheim, as displayed in her solo concert appearances Barbara Cook: A Concert for the Theatre (1987), Mostly Sondheim (2002) and Barbara Cook's Broadway! (2004). Cook made her final Broadway appearance in the musical revue Sondheim on Sondheim (2010), earning a Tony Award nomination for her performance.

In 1998, Cook earned her first of three Olivier Award nominations for a solo show she presented at London's Donmar Warehouse. She received the esteemed Kennedy Center Honors in 2011, and in 2016 HarperCollins published Cook's Then and Now: A Memoir, outlining her struggles with depression and alcoholism in the 1970s amid the rise of her career.

Cook married David LeGrant, an acting teacher, in 1952; they divorced in 1965. In 1959 the couple had one son, Adam, by whom Cook is survived.