Martha Wright

Martha Wright (born Martha Lucile Wiederrecht; March 23, 1923 – March 1, 2016) was an American actress and singer best known for her performances on Broadway and on television. A native of Seattle, Wright sang on the radio and played roles in musical theatre and opera as a teenager. She moved to New York City and debuted on Broadway by age 21, where she soon found success as Mary Martin's replacement in both South Pacific and The Sound of Music. She also continued to sing on the radio. From the mid-1950s Wright also performed on television, including in her own show. By the late 1960s she had curtailed her performances but returned for a few engagements in the 1970s and 1980s. Early life and career Wright was born in Seattle, Washington to Frederick Wiederrecht, a plumber, electrician and handyman, who was also a tenor, and Lucile Wright (c. 1900–1976). She was raised in Duvall, Washington, where she began to study singing and piano with her maternal grandmother, Cora Wright (1874–1951), a pianist, singer and music teacher. Wright moved to Seattle in her teens and graduated from Franklin High School. At the age of seventeen, Wright began to sing on the radio in and around Seattle and attended the University of Washington for two years. Wright also began to sing opera at the same time, including in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute. She then joined a touring company in the chorus of Up in Central Park. Moving to in New York City, Wright began to sing on RKO-WOR Radio with its orchestra in 1947, with Sylvan Levin conducting. She soon became the understudy for Florence George as Désirée Artôt in the operetta Music in my Heart, with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Wright took over the role from the ailing George in out-of-town tryouts and created the role on Broadway (1947–48). Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote of her performance: "One of the virtues is Martha Wright, the soprano. She at least appreciates the quality of last night's principal composer, and she has the voice and the training to put color into the music she is singing." Other early Broadway roles included Carol in the musical ghost story Great to Be Alive! (1950). She also appeared in supper clubs, including The Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, and came to the attention of Rodgers and Hammerstein, who cast her as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1951–54), to replace Mary Martin in the role.