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{{Short description|American actress and singer (1934–2022)}}{{for|the geographer|Rita Gardner (geographer)}}

factoids

| birth_place = New York City, U.S.mf=yes09193423}}| death_place = New York City, U.S.| other_names = | occupation = Actress · singer| years_active = 1958–2020

• {{marriage|Herb Gardner|1957|1970|end=divorced{edih}
• {{marriage|Peter Cereghetti|||end=divorced}}
• Robert Sevra (?-2022; her death)

}}ritagardner.com}}}}Rita Gardner ({{née}} Schier;BOOK, Farber, Donald C.,weblink The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks: America's Longest-running Play, Viagas, Robert, 2005, Hal Leonard Corporation, 978-0-87910-313-2, en, October 23, 1934 – September 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer.

Career

Gardner made her stage debut Off-Broadway in Jerry Herman's musical review Nightcap (1958)BOOK, Dietz, Dan,weblink Off Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows, 2010-03-10, McFarland, 978-0-7864-5731-1, en, BOOK, Citron, Stephen,weblink Jerry Herman: Poet of the Showtune, 2008-10-01, Yale University Press, 978-0-300-13324-0, en, before her breakout turn as Luisa in the original cast of The Fantasticks in 1960.Portantiere, Michel. "Rita Gardner Remembers" theatermania.com, March 7, 2000The Fantasticks lortel.org, accessed February 16, 2019BOOK, Dietz, Dan,weblink Off Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows, 2010-03-10, McFarland, 978-0-7864-5731-1, en, Other off-Broadway credits include The Cradle Will Rock (1964), To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (1969), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1972), Steel Magnolias (1987), Wings (1993), and The Foreigner (2004)."Rita Gardner Off-Broadway" lortel.org, accessed February 16, 2019BOOK, Hischak, Thomas S.,weblink Off-Broadway Musicals since 1919: From Greenwich Village Follies to The Toxic Avenger, 2011-02-18, Scarecrow Press, 978-0-8108-7772-6, en, Gardner made her Broadway debut in the short-lived musical (65 performances) A Family Affair in 1962 as Sally Nathan.A Family Affair playbill (vault), accessed February 16, 2019BOOK, Filichia, Peter,weblink Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959 to 2009, 2010, Applause Theatre & Cinema, 978-1-4234-9562-8, en, She was featured in a brief 1963 revival of Pal Joey as Linda EnglishPal Joey ibdb.com, accessed February 16, 2019 and replaced Susan Watson soon after the opening of Ben Franklin in Paris in 1964." Ben Franklin in Paris replacements" ibdb.com, accessed February 16, 2019 Her Broadway career subsequently stalled, finding her serving as a standby or understudy in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969), and Morning's at Seven (2002) (understudy for Cora and Esther).Morning's at Seven ibdb.com, accessed February 16, 2019 She had a featured role as Rosie in The Wedding Singer in 2006,Jacobson, Lynn. "Legit Reviews. The Wedding Singer" Variety, February 10, 2006 with three musical numbers including the song "Move that Thang".BOOK, Dietz, Dan,weblink The Complete Book of 2000s Broadway Musicals, 2017-04-06, Rowman & Littlefield, 978-1-4422-7801-1, en, Gardner's regional theatre credits include Show Boat and The Impossible Years at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania (1983), Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at the New Mexico Repertory Theatre (1992)WEB, New Mexico Repertory Theatre. - Social Networks and Archival Context,weblink 2023-01-27, snaccooperative.org, ,the musical Lucky in the Rain at the Goodspeed Opera House (1997),Nassour, Ellis. "Scott Wise Gets Lucky in Goodspeed's New Musical, Aug. 1", Playbill, August 1, 1997 and Eleanor: A Love Story at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. (1999). She appeared in the national tour of Kiss of the Spider Woman (1994). She gave a critically acclaimed performance in Murderers at The Cincinnati Playhouse (2007).In 2002, she appeared in her one-woman revue Try to Remember: A Look Back at Off-Broadway at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City on Saturday evenings. The revue included ballads from The Fantasticks.Portantiere, Michael. "Rita Gardner Remembers" theatermania.com, March 7, 2000 She performed the revue at the Metropolitan Room in New York City in 2011.Gioia, Michael. "Rita Gardner's Try to Remember Will Play Limited Engagement at NYC's Metropolitan Room" playbill, September 2, 2011Gardner's television credits include appearances in Law & Order, (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) (on season one episode 18),BOOK, Green, Susan,weblink The Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Unofficial Companion, Dawn, Randee, 2009, BenBella Books, 978-1-933771-88-5, en, (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), and Dora the Explorer (as Grandma Fox).Gardner studied acting at HB StudioWEB,weblink HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC, in New York City. She was a faculty member for the sixth annual Cabaret Conference at Yale University in 2008.Hetrick, Adam. "Hall, Gardner, Lutvak, Myers, Mayes and McKnight to Perform at Yale", Playbill, July 28, 2008.

Personal life and death

Born in New York City, Rita Schier was the daughter of Nathan and Tillie ({{nee}} Hack) Schier. She had an elder brother, Lewis.Family Profile (screenshot). Accessed September 26, 2022.Lewis Schier reference, newspapers.lib.sfu.ca. Accessed September 28, 2022.Gardner married playwright Herb Gardner in 1957; the marriage ended in divorce in 1970. That same year, she remarried, to Peter Cereghetti, and then divorced not long after. Her last marriage was to playwright Robert Sevra, who survived her.WEB,weblink Rita Gardner Dead, New York Times, September 28, 2022, September 28, 2022, Gardner died of leukemia on September 24, 2022, in New York City, at the age of 87.NEWS, Ingenthron, Blair, Rita Gardner, Original Luisa in THE FANTASTICKS, Passes Away at 87,weblink September 26, 2022, Broadway World, September 25, 2022, WEB,weblink Rita Gardner Dies: Original Cast Member Of 'The Fantasticks' Was 87, Deadline Hollywood, Deadline, Greg, Evans, September 26, 2022, September 26, 2022,

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• Official website {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926201757weblink |date=2022-09-26 }}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{IMDb name|id=0307083|name=Rita Gardner}}
• {{iobdb name|123}}
• Photographs from The Fantasticks
• Lortel Archives listing

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