Merle Louise

Merle Louise (born Merle Louise Letowt, April 15, 1934) is an American actress, best known for appearing in four Stephen Sondheim musicals, most famously as "The Beggar Woman" in Sweeney Todd.

Early in her career, (when she was still known as Merle Letowt), she played "Thelma" in the original cast of Gypsy (1959). Eventually, she moved up to the fourth lead rôle of "Dainty June", playing it for much of the Broadway run and on the first national tour.

Louise returned to Broadway in Company (1970) as "Susan". Her biggest success was as "the Beggar Woman" in Sweeney Todd (1979), for which she won the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical. However, her "ravaging crazy" performance is not preserved in the video recording as she was not a member of the national tour that was videotaped. In Into the Woods (1987), she played a trio of rôles: the ethereal "Cinderella's Mother", the practical "Granny" (of "Little Red Riding Hood" fame), and the unseen vengeful "Giantess".

Louise has originated rôles with other Broadway composers as well. She played "Mme. Dindon" in Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles (1983) and "Molina's Mother" in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), a rôle she also played on London's West End, in Toronto and on the national tour.

Off-Broadway, she created the rôle of Cecily MacIntosh in Charlotte Sweet (1982). Regionally, she is an acclaimed actress in classics by Shakespeare,Chekhov, Molière, Pinter, Ibsen, and Shaw.

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