Sarah Rice, Original Johanna in Sweeney Todd, Dies at 68

Sarah Rice, who originated the role of Johanna in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd, bestowing the character with a spine-tingling soprano voice, died on January 6 following an extended battle with cancer. She was 68. Rice’s passing was confirmed by friends Rebecca Caine and Stuart J. Allyn.

Born in Okinawa, Japan, Rice grew up in Arizona. In a 2011 interview, Rice said that she moved to New York at 18 after winning a singing contest. “They paid for my ticket one way and I came to New York City with $200 and two cats.” (Rice's personal website notes it as being $100.) In the same interview, Rice described being tapped for Sweeney Todd: “The casting director came up and said, ‘You got it,’ and I almost fell down.”

Prior to her turn in Sweeney Todd, Rice played Luisa in the long-running off-Broadway production of The Fantasticks, a role she would play on and off for over two years. She also appeared in the 1990 off-Broadway prodcution of The Waves at New York Theatre Workshop, David Bucknam and Lisa Peterson's musical adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel.

Though Sweeney Todd was her sole Broadway credit, Rice traversed the worlds of musical theater, cabaret and opera. She was a fixture of Sondheim Unplugged at 54 Below and also also performed in productions of The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville. In more recent performances, she also played the theremin. “I don’t do spooky woo-woos,” she said in 2013. “I play it as an instrument. It just had this otherworldly sound to it that’s fascinating to me. I use it like a singer.”

“Farewell my sweet, kind friend,” Caine wrote on Instagram. “May you be greeted by every animal you ever loved on the other side and may green finch and linnet birds sing you to your rest.”