Marcia Lewis, Tony Nominee for 'Grease' and 'Chicago,' Dies at 72

Marcia Lewis, a Tony Award nominee for her performances in the Broadway revivals of "Grease" and "Chicago," died in the early hours of Dec. 21. She was 72. Though the cause of death has not been revealed, she was suffering from lung and brain cancer.

Lewis won acclaim for her salty and sly interpretations of the nasty high school teacher Miss Lynch in the 1994 revival of "Grease" and the manipulative prison matron Mama Morton in the 1996 revival of "Chicago." She also toured in the latter production, in which she routinely stopped the show with her brassy delivery of "When You're Good to Mama" and "Class," the latter a duet between her character and Velma Kelly, the foul-mouthed murderess first played in the revival by Bebe Neuwirth.

Her additional Broadway credits include "Hello, Dolly!," playing opposite both Phyllis Diller and Ethel Merman; "Annie" "Rags," for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination; the Harold Prince–directed "Roza" the 1990 revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" and the 1989 revival of "Orpheus Descending" starring Vanessa Redgrave. Lewis also appeared Off-Broadway in "Romance Language" and "When She Danced." She toured in "Cabaret" and "42nd Street." Her TV appearances include "The Bob Newhart Show," "Happy Days," "Kate and Allie," and "The Bionic Woman."

She also had an extensive cabaret career, playing Rainbow and Stars, Upstairs at the Duplex, Reno Sweeney's, the Village Gate, and the Russian Tea Room. For her club work she won Bistro and MAC awards as well as the Bistro's Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lewis trained as a nurse at the Jewish Hospital of Nursing in Cincinnati and later worked in that capacity at the University of Cincinnati and Mount Sinai hospitals, the latter in NYC.

In 2001, Lewis married Nashville businessman Fred Bryan, who had seen her in "Chicago" 15 times. At the time of her death she was living in the country-music capital and had retired from show business.