Susan Hight Denny

Susan Hight Denny, who starred on Broadway in the original production of "Guys & Dolls" and later taught musical theater vocal performance for 15 years at American University, died on Sunday at the age of 84. In addition to playing the lead role of "Sarah Brown" in "Guys & Dolls" in both the Broadway and the subsequent national tour she also had a featured role in the Broadway musical, "Two's Company," starring Bette Davis and appeared in the original productions of "South Pacific" and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." A native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, she graduated from Colby College in 1948 and from the New England Conservatory two years later, after which she sang with many of the premier bands in the Boston area before making the decision to relocate to the bright lights and bigger stage of New York. Six weeks to the day after her arrival in town, she simultaneously received three job offers: as a singer with the Paul Whiteman band, as a nurse in the Broadway musical "South Pacific," and the one she initially accepted – as a "flapper" in the Broadway musical "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," choreographed by Agnes de Mille. After stints in both of those musicals, a season as singer/soloist on the "Don Ameche Show" plus other television work including as a soloist on "The Colgate Comedy Hour" (where she sang with both Paul Whiteman and Sigmund Romberg), she went on to play lead roles in musicals "Kiss Me Kate" and "Showboat" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ. She was then cast to sing her first featured duet in the Bette Davis revue, "Two's Company", choreographed by Jerome Robbins, followed by her landing the coveted romantic lead in Frank Loesser's Broadway production of "Guys & Dolls." While her musical reputation was firmly entrenched on Broadway, Denny's connection to the Washington, DC area was serendipitous. When the New York fire marshal discovered code violations at the 46th Street Theater where "Guys & Dolls" was playing and ordered it closed for repairs, the Broadway company relocated to the National Theater in Washington, D.C. for six weeks. It was there that her future husband, Robert Denny, saw her onstage for the first time. As a reporter for the Washington Times-Herald (which later became the Washington Post) he managed to secure the assignment to cover the cast costume party. They met and were married the next year, settling in Chevy Chase, MD, for more than forty years. Robert Denny was a novelist, filmmaker and citizen activist who became well-known for founding the political action committee, Fairness In Taxation, to spearhead a successful Montgomery County tax revolt. He died in 2000. Susan was drawn back into musical theater when she was asked to direct community theater productions in the 1970's throughout the D.C. metropolitan area. She then taught voice and musical theater performance for many years both at American University and privately, mentoring and inspiring hundreds of students, many of whom went on to careers in music and theater. "I owe an enormous debt and a great deal of my career to Susan Hight Denny," wrote former student Gaines Hall, who has enjoyed a 20-year career as a professional singer and actor in Germany. "Her performance coaching has been the key to my winning many roles and her healthy vocal technique has gotten me through more than a few shows in which I was so sick that any singer without the 'Sue Denny Touch' would have had to cancel the show." Paul Micsan, another former student, said, "Sue not only taught me how to sing on stage, but how to own that stage. To this day, I never walk onto a stage without hearing her encouraging and masterful words in my head." She is survived by a sister, Ellen Morris, of Simsbury, CT; two sons, Christopher Denny of New York City and Stephen Denny of Watsonville, CA (wife: Christine); two grandchildren, Nicholas and Alexander Denny of Watsonville, CA; and a niece, Julie Ogden, of Newbury, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Actors Fund, 729 Seventh Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10019 or online at www.actorsfund.org