Marcia Lewis was born in Melrose, MA, and raised in Cincinnati, OH. Ms. Lewis was short, sturdy and could make herself heard without the aid of a mike. She liked to tell the story how, while making her Broadway debut with Ethel Merman in the original Hello, Dolly!, the Broadway legend told her, "Marcia, you and I are never going to have to worry about reaching the balcony." She played the comically evil Miss Hannigan in Annie, Rachel Halpern in the short-lived Rags, Golde in a 1990 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, and squared off with Vanessa Redgrave as the distrusting Nurse Porter in Orpheus Descending. But it was in the 1990s, when she was in her 50s, that Marcia Lewis achieved her greatest fame. She was Miss Lynch in the critically disliked but long-running 1994 revival of Grease!, and nominated for a Tony Award for her work. Two years later, she stepped into a black pant-suit and fire-red lipstick as the saucy, hard-as-nails Matron "Mama" Morton in Kander and Ebb's Chicago. She owned two of the revivals show-stoppers: "When You're Good to Mama" and "Class". It was the biggest success of her career, and she was again nominated for a Tony Award. In 2001, Ms. Lewis — who had been previously wed once before — married Nashville businessman Fred Bryan, a financial advisor who had seen Chicago 15 times. In 2001, after her honeymoon, the actress, returned to the role of Matron "Mama" Morton in Chicago. She also toured with the show in 2003.

Source: Playbill.com