Barbara Cook, the self-proclaimed poor, naive Southern Belle who became the reigning soprano in the Golden Age of Broadway and then a cabaret and concert hall star of the first magnitude, has died at age 89.
Broadway will dim its lights in her honor on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m.
Read my review of her memoir published just last year., about a life full of 19 Broadway shows, 45 albums, 40 yrs of sobriety — and one glorious golden voice that never failed her.
She would tell students: “Concentrate on what you’re trying to say with this song; the words have to matter.”
Barbara Cook in The Music Man, 1957
Barbara Cook as a teenager with her mother
Barbara Cook in 1950
Barbara Cook with the Bil Baird Marionettes in Flahooley, 1951, her first Broadway show.
Barbara Cook with her husband David LeGrant in the 1953 revival of Oklahoma!
Barbara Cook as the original Amalia in She Loves Me, 1963
