Harold Prince, Carolee Carmello, Rebecca Luker and More to Remember Phantom Actor Kevin Gray at the Majestic

By Adam Hetrick
26 Apr 2013

Kevin Gray and wife Dodie Pettit at the Jan. 26 Phantom of the Opera anniversary celebration.
Kevin Gray and wife Dodie Pettit at the Jan. 26 Phantom of the Opera anniversary celebration.
Photo by Monica Simoes

Members of the Broadway community will gather May 13 at the Majestic Theatre to remember late Phantom of the Opera star Kevin Gray, who died earlier this year at the age of 55. Harold Prince, Rebecca Luker, Hugh Panaro, Carolee Carmello and Robert Cuccioli are among those who will be in attendance.

Gray, a Broadway performer who appeared in The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon, died Feb. 11 in Westport, CT. He had most recently starred as Scar in the national tour of The Lion King.

Open to the public, A Celebration of the Life of Kevin Gray will begin at 2 PM at the Majestic Theatre. Doors will open at 1:15 PM. Charles Randolph Wright (Motown) will direct.

In addition to Phantom director Prince, the memorial will feature Gray's previous Phantom co-stars, including Luker, Panaro, Cris Groenendaal, Karen Culliver, Sarah Pfisterer, Lisa Vroman and Dodie Pettit (Mr. Gray's wife).

Also announced to participate will be Carmello, Cuccioli, Judy Blazer, Elizabeth Renihan and Craig Schulman, as well as presentations by members of the casts of the Broadway and national touring companies of The Lion King, Miss Saigon, Titanic and The King & I.

Mr. Gray served as associate professor of Theatre at The Hartt School at The University of Hartford. In his honor, The Kevin Gray Musical Theatre Award Endowment Fund at Duke University and The Kevin Gray Memorial Scholarship Award at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford have been created to support theatre students.

Grey's Broadway roles also included a turn as the King of Siam in the 1996 revival of The King and I, and the short-lived Chu Chem in 1989. Off-Broadway, he appeared in a 1984 revival of Sondheim's Pacific Overtures; the 1987 David Hare-penned musical The Knife starring Mandy Patinkin; and a staging of The Death of Garcia Lorca, all at the Public Theater.

Read his full obituary at Playbill.com.