Broadway's Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer Remembers Late Mom a Year After Her Death: 'She's Always with Me' (Exclusive)

• Stage veteran Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer shares memories of her late mother, Luz Selena Rodriguez, who died of frontotemporal dementia on May 9, 2023.
• The actress was nominated for her first Tony Award for her role on Broadway Spamalot
• Kritzer will perform his solo show, The Lady Of The Lake: The Farewell Tour, on June 5 at Joe’s Pub in New York

After 25 years in the business, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer received her first Tony nomination this year for her feature role as The Lady of the Lake in the acclaimed revival of Monty Python Spamalot.

But the milestone comes at a bittersweet time for Kritzer.

“My mom, Luz Selena Rodriguez, passed away a year ago,” the 47-year-old actress told PEOPLE at the 2024 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees earlier this month. “And I can’t stop thinking about how proud she would be right now.”

Kritzer’s mother died of frontotemporal dementia on May 9, 2023. The next day, Kritzer began technical rehearsals for Spamalotperformed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC

“The timing was crazy,” recalls the performer. “I was able to be there with her; I was with her when she took her last breath. And then I walked out of there and walked into the show where I was received with so much love. So to be here, a year later, celebrating a Tony nomination… it’s really full circle.”

Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, Kritzer developed a performance problem at a young age.

She studied classical piano and classical voice at a young age, flexing her comedic muscles in school plays before entering the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for musical theater (where she graduated with Shoshana Bean, who coincidentally was nominated in the same category alongside Kritzer this year).

After five years of regional and off-Broadway productions, Kritzer finally made her Broadway debut in 2004, as a replacement in the original Broadway production. Hair spray. From there came the roles in Legally Blonde: The Musical (2007), Arranged affair (2008), Sondheim on Sondheim (2010), i Dwarf (2012). She received some of the best reviews of her career playing Delia, the role Catherine O’Hara made famous on screen, in 2019. bug juice.

Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer at the 2024 Tony Awards Meet the Nominees on May 2, 2024 at the Sofitel New York in New York City.

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Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer at the opening night of ‘Spamalot’ on November 16, 2023.

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Through it all, Kritzer says her mother has been her “biggest cheerleader.”

“She really always supported me and loved me very much”, reflects the star. “And she knew her little girl had something special. I get my humor from my dad, who’s still with us, but I get my sass and my fire from my mom. She didn’t get BS from anybody. She gave me the push to get me here. So everything I do is for her.”

Kritzer’s mom was also there when the actress learned she had received her first Tony nomination. “I put her picture next to the bed so she could be with me,” says Kritzer. – I wanted her to be a part of it.

“But I feel her with me all the time; she’s always with me,” Kritzer adds. “And I look a lot like her, when I look at the pictures, so whenever I’m doing an event where I’m getting dressed up, I look in the mirror and I see her. This is exactly how she would want me to look and feel. So it’s crazy.”

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Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer in ‘Spamalot’ on Broadway.

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Spamalot was Kritzer’s ninth play on Broadway. The role she played, Lady of the Lake, was originated by Sara Ramirez (who won a Tony for her) in the 2005 Broadway production, and later by Hannah Waddingham in the 2006 London transfer.

“Getting into a role like this, it could be a little intimidating,” admits Kritzer. “But Sara and Hannah did their thing, and when I approach a role, I like to say, ‘OK, what can I do with her that no one else can?’ So I put what I call ‘special Kritzer sauce’ on it, which is everything I’ve absorbed over the years working as a comedic actress and learning from people I admire like Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin and Andrea Martin have done.”

Luckily, she had the support of director and choreographer Josh Rhodes, who Kritzer says gave her “carte blanche to deal with it.”

“It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done because I could really do all these things I wanted to do with her,” Kritzer says. “All my crazy, crazy, wacky ideas, Josh said, ‘Yeah, go, go, go, go.’ It was so great to have that creative input and to be recognized with this nomination, I feel very grateful indeed.”

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Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer in ‘Spamalot’ on Broadway.

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And that gratitude remains, even after such a loss.

“You know, everything in life is timing,” Kritzer continues. “My mom, it was a long illness and although it was painful when it ended, closing that chapter allowed this to open. So I feel lucky that she was finally in a place of peace, which allowed me to move forward and really accept great things happening now.”

“I feel like it was meant to be,” she says. “It’s really meant to be.”

Kritzer will perform her solo show, The Lady Of The Lake: The Farewell Tour, on June 5 at Joe’s Pub in New York City. Tickets are already on sale.

The 2024 Tony Awards will be held on Sunday, June 16, at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater in New York City. Viewers can watch the show on CBS and Paramount+ beginning at 8:00 PM ET. Selected awards will also be presented at a pre-show broadcast on Pluto TV.

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Source: HIS Education