{"id":3028,"date":"2026-02-28T12:48:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T12:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=3028"},"modified":"2026-02-28T12:48:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T12:48:54","slug":"broadway-icon-sondra-lee-original-hello-dolly-and-peter-pan-star-passes-away-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=3028","title":{"rendered":"Broadway Icon Sondra Lee, Original \u2018Hello, Dolly!\u2019 and \u2018Peter Pan\u2019 Star, Passes Away at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"225\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Sondra Lee<\/span><\/span>, a celebrated Broadway performer whose career spanned nearly 90 years, has died at 97. She passed away from natural causes on Feb. 23 at her home in <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">New York City<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"227\" data-end=\"605\">She was best known for originating Tiger Lily in the 1954 Broadway production of <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Peter Pan<\/span><\/span> and Minnie Fay in the 1964 premiere of <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Hello, Dolly!<\/span><\/span>. Born in 1928 in Newark, New Jersey, she overcame early health challenges to pursue ballet and theater, later collaborating with <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Jerome Robbins<\/span><\/span> on <em data-start=\"593\" data-end=\"604\">Peter Pan<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"607\" data-end=\"909\">Lee also appeared in <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">La Dolce Vita<\/span><\/span> by <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Federico Fellini<\/span><\/span>, and became a respected teacher and mentor. Her final public appearance was in June 2025 at <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Carnegie Hall<\/span><\/span> during a <em data-start=\"846\" data-end=\"861\">Hello, Dolly!<\/em> concert, where she received a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"911\" data-end=\"949\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">A public memorial is planned for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Sondra Lee, a celebrated Broadway performer whose career spanned nearly 90 years, has died at 97. She passed away from natural causes on Feb. 23 <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/?p=3028\" title=\"Broadway Icon Sondra Lee, Original \u2018Hello, Dolly!\u2019 and \u2018Peter Pan\u2019 Star, Passes Away at 97\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3030,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3028\/revisions\/3030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralspotlight26.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}