Marcia Mitzman Gaven is an American actress from New York. Since studying at the High School of Performing Arts and the State University of New York at Purchase, she has appeared in many musicals during her career singing in both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles. Her Broadway debut came in 1979 when she played Betty Rizzo in Grease, serving as the replacement for the original actress of the Role, Adrienne Barbeau. In the 1980s she appeared in the musicals The Rocky Horror Show, Oliver!, Zorba, Nine, Anything Goes, Chess, and Welcome to the Club, and in the operas Brigadoon, South Pacific, and Sweeney Todd.
In 1992, Gaven played the character Mrs. Walker in a new production called The Who's Tommy at La Jolla Playhouse. The musical was a success, resulting in its move to Broadway in 1993. Gaven was praised by critics for her performance and received a Tony Award nomination in the "Best Featured Actress in a Musical" category. She eventually had to leave The Who's Tommy before its Broadway run ended because of an allergic reaction to a smoke effect used in the show. In 1995, she won an Ovation Award and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Florence Vassy in Chess at Hudson Theatre. She was also awarded an Ovation Award for the role of Mother in the staging of the musical Ragtime at Shubert Theatre in 1997. Gaven's latest role in a musical was in a 2001 production of 1776 by UCLA's Freud Playhouse. Since then she has appeared in concerts and fundraisers.
Gaven has also made guest star appearances in numerous television shows and films, playing both live-action and animated roles. She voiced several characters in the animated series The Simpsons from 1999 until 2002, including Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, Miss Hoover, and others. She was hired after Maggie Roswell departed from the show, due to a pay dispute. She has not been heard on the show since Roswell's return in 2002. Gaven has also lent her voice to television and radio advertisements. She is currently married to Seth Gaven owner of AV Squad, a film marketing company. They have two children, Michael and Katherine.
Early life Gaven was born as Marcia Mitzman on February 28, 1959, in New York City. She was raised with her two siblings in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, by their mother Patricia Mitzman, who had previously had a career in art. Newt Mitzman, their father, directed television specials and commercials for a living. Gaven went to Hackley Elementary School in Tarrytown, New York, when she was young. At that time she was certain that she wanted to work in show business. As the result of a lie, she was able to study at the High School of Performing Arts even though the school was only open to inhabitants of New York City. She then became a drama major at the State University of New York at Purchase, though she did not get a degree. She said in a 1987 interview with The New York Times that "they kicked me out because I missed a major rehearsal", and she never applied for readmission since she had already made her first appearance on Broadway in Grease by then. While at Purchase, Gaven performed in student productions such as The Taming of the Shrew and Trumpets and Drums.
Career in theatre Gaven has had a prominent career in musical theatre and has appeared in many rock musicals. She told TheaterWeek in 1993 that she thinks those kinds of musicals are harder to sing in compared to standard musicals, and that "the nature of rock and roll is that it's on the edge. It's written to be done dangerously. You can't be careful and do it at the same time. If you don't do it dangerously, you run the risk of losing the impact." During her career, Gaven has sung in both mezzo-soprano and soprano roles, and has been cited for her belting. According to Alvin Klein, theatre critic for The New York Times, she "is categorically a mezzo soprano." Gaven has also been noted for her strong voice, and was once told by a sound technician at An Evening Dinner Theater in Elmsford, New York, that "We always turn off the mikes when you sing" because she did not need amplification.
1979–1989
In March 1979, when Gaven was twenty years old, she served as the replacement actress for the character Betty Rizzo in the original Broadway production of Grease. This was her Broadway debut. In late 1980, she was cast in the lead role of Janet in the musical The Rocky Horror Show that ran for six nights at Warner Theatre. It tells the story of a couple, Brad and Janet, who find themselves lost one night and end up in the laboratory of an alien doctor. The cast, including Gaven, was praised by critics. In 1984, she played a Londoner in the revival of Oliver! at Broadway and was the understudy to Patti LuPone's Nancy. That same year, in the Broadway revival of Zorba, Gaven played the role of The Widow who is eventually stoned to death by the townspeople after being held responsible for the suicide of a young boy who fell in love with her. She then portrayed the character Luisa, the wife of an Italian film director, in a production of Nine at An Evening Dinner Theater in 1985.
Gaven starred in the New York City Opera's Broadway revival of Brigadoon, in which she played Meg Brockie, at New York State Theater in 1986. The story is about a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every hundred years, and Meg is one of the villagers. According to Sy Syna of the magazine The World & I, Gaven was "a huge crowd pleaser" in the role. She was also cast in the New York City Opera's spring 1987 revival of South Pacific as the female lead character Nellie Forbush, a U.S. Navy nurse who works on a South Pacific island during World War II. This nine-week run of South Pacific had an alternating cast and Nellie was also portrayed by Susan Bigelow. Later that year in July during the New York City Opera's regular season, she appeared in the opera company's Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, who makes and sells meat pies made from the victims of serial killer Sweeney Todd.
In Pioneer Theatre Company's fall 1988 production of Anything Goes, Gaven played the lead role of nightclub singer Reno Sweeney. It is set on an ocean liner on which Reno helps the character Billy Crocker win the heart of the engaged Hope Harcourt who he has fallen in love with. While reviewing the musical for the Deseret News, Joseph Walker commented that Gaven "is sensational as Reno Sweeney, the saucy, sassy hoofer-with-a-heart-of-gold. She has an arresting presence and a golden voice; the whole show always seems better when she's on stage." At the end of 1988, Gaven returned to the musical Oliver! in a Theatre Under The Stars production in Houston, starring as Nancy. A critic for the Houston Chronicle commended her performance, writing that she "acts the compassionate Nancy with warmth and spirit, and sings in a strong voice full of character."
Also in 1988, Gaven played the part of the Russian chess player's wife Svetlana in the short-lived Broadway production of the musical Chess, for which she was praised by critics. The following year she appeared as Carol Bates in the Broadway musical Welcome to the Club. It revolves around four men who have been put in jail for not paying alimony. The musical shows why they ended up divorcing their wives, one of which is played by Gaven. Both Chess and Welcome to the Club were unsuccessful. John Simon criticized the latter musical in a New York Magazine review but praised Gaven's performance, writing: "The cast ranges from the charmless to the hopeless [...] in this mess. Only Marcia Mitzman manages to stand out from the crowd, and when she gets the right part in the right show, she'll do just fine." Associated Press drama critic Michael Kuchwara also wrote negatively about Welcome to the Club while giving praise to Gaven for projecting "a sympathy [to her character] that isn't apparent in the book."
1990–1995 In December 1990, Gaven once again appeared as Nancy in a revival of Oliver!—this time in a production at 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, Washington. A theatre critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that she "has the voice to anchor anything you'd care to name, even the 5th Avenue Theatre. 5th Avenue performers often sound as if they were speaking and singing through a football stadium public address system. But Mitzman overpowers malevolent acoustics." After Oliver!, she appeared as Countess Charlotte Malcolm in Ahmanson Theatre's production of A Little Night Music that was performed from April 18 to June 30, 1991, at James A. Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Gaven worked at 5th Avenue Theatre again in December 1991 in the musical Here's Love. She portrayed the divorced Doris Walker, a single-working mother of a girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus. During spring 1992, she played the love interest of a male songwriter and his best friend in the musical The Tin Pan Man (set in 1905) at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.
Starting at the beginning of July 1992, Gaven appeared in a new musical called The Who's Tommy at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. It was based on the rock opera album Tommy by The Who. Gaven starred as Mrs. Walker, the mother of the boy Tommy who is traumatized when he sees his father murder Mrs. Walker's new boyfriend. Tommy ultimately becomes non-responsive, leading people to believe that he is deaf, mute, and blind, and his parents try to find a cure for his condition. Gaven later told TheaterWeek that she initially did not want to do the musical, since she "had no idea how this could be staged as a theatrical piece. I hoped my agents wouldn't call me and ask me to audition." However, they did, and she was cast as Mrs. Walker after an audition in which she sang the song "Heaven Help My Heart" that she performed in Chess, also a rock musical. The Who's Tommy was La Jolla Playhouse's biggest success yet and as a result its run was lengthened by several weeks. Later that year, Gaven once again played Doris in Here's Love—this time in a Theatre Under The Stars production.
In late 1992 it was announced that because of the success of The Who's Tommy, it would be produced for Broadway and open in April 1993. The production cost eight million dollars and it broke the box office record for the biggest non-opening day with US$494,897 earned on April 23, 1993, at St. James Theatre (where the musical opened on April 22), beating Guys and Dolls 1992 record. Des McAnuff, who directed the musical at both La Jolla Playhouse and on Broadway, decided to bring many actors from the original cast with him despite weeks of auditions with thousands of actors trying out for the roles in front of him. The Broadway production featured some changes to the musical, such as a new song devoted to Tommy's parents that Gaven thought "helps show their side of the story." However, as she told The San Diego Union-Tribune, the biggest difference was the increased amount of money she earned. Gaven was praised by critics for her portrayal of Mrs. Walker in the Broadway production, with one critic from The Miami Herald writing that her "alluring alto voice makes you wish Tommy's mother had even more to sing."