Loni Ackerman (born April 10, 1949) is an American

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

musical theatre performer and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dinin ...

singer.

Career

Born in New York City, she made her

debut in '' George M!'' in 1968, then, in the hit

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

production of ''

Dames at Sea ''Dames at Sea'' is a 1966 musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise. The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the ...

. ''Ackerman's additional Broadway credits include another major success, '' The Magic Show'' with

Doug Henning Douglas James Henning (May 3, 1947 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. Early life Henning was born in the Fort Garry district of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and began practising magic at Oaken ...

, the short-lived '' So Long, 174th Street'', and the title role in the Los Angeles production of '' Evita''. She was in the original cast of ''

Starting Here, Starting Now ''Starting Here, Starting Now'' is a musical revue with lyrics by Richard Maltby Jr. and music by David Shire. With a cast of three and three musicians, the revue explores a variety of romantic relationships. Productions The revue was first prod ...

''. She appeared in the off Broadway productions of ''Diamonds'' and ''The Petrified Prince''. Her last Broadway credit was

Grizabella Grizabella the Glamour Cat is a main character in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ''Cats''. Lonely and decrepit, Grizabella seeks acceptance from the other Jellicle cats but is initially ostracised. She sings the most famous song from the musical ...

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musical ...

's ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

'', in which she sang the famous song "

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remember ...

". She then became inactive to raise her two sons. In August 2011, she starred at

Gateway Playhouse Gateway Playhouse, also known as the Performing Arts Center of Suffolk County is a theatre located on the eastern edge of Bellport, New York on the grounds of the former Mott Estate. The street address is 215 South Country Road. It's the olde ...

Bellport Bellport is a village in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 2,084 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Bellport is named after the Bell family, ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

, as Norma Desmond in the musical ''

Sunset Blvd. Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in t ...

'' In 2012, Ackerman debuted her cabaret show ''Next To Ab-normal'' in NYC. In 2016, Ackerman starred in ''My Mother, My Sister, and Me'', and in ''To Life'' in 2019.

Personal life

Ackerman is married to

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

er Steve Canyon Kennedy. They have two sons, Jack and George.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ackerman, Loni 1949 births 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers Actresses from New York City American musical theatre actresses Cabaret singers Living people Singers from New York City