Elizabeth Josephine Sullivan Loesser (née Sullivan; August , â€"
April , ) was an American actress and high lyric soprano singer. She
became a musical theatre star with her performance in the original
production of The Most Happy Fella, for which she was nominated for a
Tony Award in .She was the daughter of Hessie Boone Sullivan and
Eileen Celeste Woods Sullivan, who worked for a lumber-distributing
company and sold cosmetics, respectively. She was born in Mounds,
Illinois, on August th, , and attended Cleveland High School. After
studying singing in St. Louis, in the late s, she studied music at
Columbia University after failing to be accepted at Juilliard School
and working at Lord & Taylor department store in New York to support
herself. She competed on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio
program but lost to a pair of harmonica players.Sullivan played Polly
Peachum in Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation of The
Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht off-Broadway in .
She also appeared as herself in an "original special" on Broadway,
called Let's Make An Opera (), which boasted music by Benjamin
Britten, a libretto by Eric Crozier, musical direction by Norman Del
Mar, and was directed by Marc Blitzstein.In the summer of , she played
Dorothy Gale in The Muny's production of The Wizard of Oz, opposite
Margaret Hamilton, who reprised her film role of the Wicked Witch of
the West. In , Loesser's daughter, Emily, played the same role at The
Muny, marking the first time in The Muny's history that a role has
been played by both mother and daughter. Loesser later reprised her
role in the production at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre.
April , ) was an American actress and high lyric soprano singer. She
became a musical theatre star with her performance in the original
production of The Most Happy Fella, for which she was nominated for a
Tony Award in .She was the daughter of Hessie Boone Sullivan and
Eileen Celeste Woods Sullivan, who worked for a lumber-distributing
company and sold cosmetics, respectively. She was born in Mounds,
Illinois, on August th, , and attended Cleveland High School. After
studying singing in St. Louis, in the late s, she studied music at
Columbia University after failing to be accepted at Juilliard School
and working at Lord & Taylor department store in New York to support
herself. She competed on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio
program but lost to a pair of harmonica players.Sullivan played Polly
Peachum in Marc Blitzstein's English-language adaptation of The
Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht off-Broadway in .
She also appeared as herself in an "original special" on Broadway,
called Let's Make An Opera (), which boasted music by Benjamin
Britten, a libretto by Eric Crozier, musical direction by Norman Del
Mar, and was directed by Marc Blitzstein.In the summer of , she played
Dorothy Gale in The Muny's production of The Wizard of Oz, opposite
Margaret Hamilton, who reprised her film role of the Wicked Witch of
the West. In , Loesser's daughter, Emily, played the same role at The
Muny, marking the first time in The Muny's history that a role has
been played by both mother and daughter. Loesser later reprised her
role in the production at the Kansas City Starlight Theatre.
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