Rita McKenzie, star theatre personality, dead at 76

Rita McKenzie has passed away.

Days before turning 77, on February 17, in Los Angeles, the TV personality who became famous for producing the longest-running one-woman show in theatre history passed away.

Her relatives stated that she passed away from a chronic disease.

Because of McKenzie’s stage voice and theatrical personality, her 1988 off-Broadway one-woman play Ethel Merman’s Broadway became the longest-running one-woman performance in the history of the theatre.

McKenzie had a variety of experience in her theatrical background.

She performed in Ruthless! The Musical‘s Los Angeles debut as Lita Encore, and also returned to the character in the production’s New York revival.

McKenzie had starring parts on TV in The Brady Bunch -The Final Days, Caroline In the City, Frasier with Kelsey Grammar, the TV series Big Brother Jake opposite Richard Lewis and Don Rickles and the film Meet Wally Sparks with Rodney Dangerfield.

With no memorial plans announced yet, the star is survived by her husband, Scott Stander, her daughter, Jennifer and her husband Tom Otto, a son, Derek Pflug and his wife Vanessa, a sister, Nancy and her husband Joe Wood, and three grandchildren, Mason and Jackson Pflug and Thomas Otto.