A Tony and Drama Desk nominee, Laurie was the incomparable performer with a once in a lifetime voice that hit the rafters in such celebrated musicals as Annie, Joseph and the Amazing Color Dreamcoat, Cats, and Les Miserables. Andrew Lloyd Webber praised her “not just for her extraordinary voice, but also her remarkable contribution to musical theatre” and the New York Times hailed her as “the best young emotive belter in the dramatic tradition of Judy Garland and Barbara Streisand.”
 

At the height of her career Laurie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1989, the year that comedian Gilda Radner died of the same disease. Laurie faced not only a life-threatening illness, but also the prospect of never working again on the stage. Instead Laurie lived and performed with cancer for nine years. “My middle name is Hope,” Laurie said. “My mother named me well.”