Rita McKenzie obit

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

She sparkled as the legendary performer in what many consider the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history.

She was not on the list.

Rita McKenzie, the actress and singer best known for her boisterous performances in the one-woman show Ethel Merman’s Broadway, died Saturday in Los Angeles after a long illness, her husband, talent agent Scott Stander, announced. She was 76.

McKenzie first starred on stage as the powerful Merman — star of such iconic Broadway hits as Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Gypsy and Hello, Dolly! — in New York in 1988.

Belting out tunes like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” McKenzie toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia in what many consider the longest-running one-woman show in theatrical history.

She also starred in parts that Merman made famous: Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes!, the gunslinger in a 50th anniversary tour of Annie Get Your Gun and Rose in Gypsy.

A native of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, McKenzie starred as Lita Encore in the Los Angeles premiere of Ruthless! The Musical and reprised the role in a New York revival and worked opposite her good friend Barbara Eden in a three year U.S. tour of Neil Simon’s The Female Odd Couple. 

McKenzie opened for the likes of Milton Berle, Don Knotts, Norm Crosby, Donald O’Connor and Steve Allen during her career and appeared in the Joseph Bologna, Reneé Taylor and Lainie Kazan tour of Bermuda Avenue Triangle, playing Taylor’s daughter.

A favorite of symphony orchestra conductors, she performed for the Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Baltimore Pops and sang the finale for a PBS Capitol Fourth celebration on the Washington Mall in 1995.

McKenzie played the housekeeper Alice — the role made famous by Ann B. Davis — in the 2000 telefilm Unauthorized: Brady Bunch — The Final Days and showed up in Rodney Dangerfield’s Meet Wally Sparks (1997) and on episodes of Daddy Dearest, Frasier, Big Brother Jake and Caroline in the City.

Most recently, she served as interview host for stage appearances of Real Housewives stars Vicki Gunvalson, Jill Zarin and Caroline Manzo and for Eden’s On the Magic Carpet show.

She also was a producer alongside her husband for the pre-Broadway tour of Rupert Holmes’ All Things Equal: The Life and Trials 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 said in a statement. “It is fitting that this tribute to one remarkable woman bears the imprimatur of another remarkable woman: the unforgettable Rita McKenzie.”

In addition to her husband, survivors include her children, Jennifer and Derek; son-in-law Tom and daughter-in-law Vanessa; sister Nancy; brother-in-law Joe; and grandchildren Mason, Jackson and Thomas.