- Date Of Birth: September 9, 1968
- Date Of Death: September 15, 2018
- State: Maryland
DOUGLAS PATRICK LAWLER was born in Ohio on September 9, 1968. He attended Tecumseh High School and later graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Music minoring in Business. He moved to the Baltimore/DC area soon after and for the next thirty years he continued his career accompanying singers in the theatre. He was a three-time nominee for the Helen Hayes Award in Music Direction and most recently performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Toby’s Dinner Theatre, Olney Theatre, Signature Theatre (Light Years), and the Kennedy Center productions of Ragtime, Master Class, Follies, Side Show, and Gigi. He was also a regular guest artist with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra where he performed with several major artists (Bernadette Peters, Barbara Cook, Elaine Paige, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Vanessa Hudgens) and national tours (Les Misérables, The Color Purple, The Book of Mormon, Evita, Wicked, An American in Paris). As a music theatre educator, he was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, the Community College of Baltimore County, and the Columbia Center for Theatrical Arts.
Doug’s talent, quiet strength and subtle humor were well-known to his friends and family and to many who had the pleasure of working with him throughout his career. After a private and fierce three-year battle with Stage IV Appendiceal Cancer, Doug passed away on September 15, 2018 at the home in Catonsville which he loved and shared with his beloved wife and partner Gillian Shelly Lawler and their 19-year-old “baby girl” Micestro.
Doug is survived by his parents Joyce and Robert Lawler; sister Jennifer Lawler, brother-in-law Scott Canon and niece Sophia Brumfield; aunt Ursula Farling, uncle Tom Harris, and cousin Sada Harris; aunt Carol North, cousin Drew North and Drew’s children Sage, Sienna, and Summit; uncle Douglas Farling (for whom Doug is named), aunt Sara Endres Farling, and cousins Derek Farling, Jim Neidinger, and Bill Neidinger. He also is loved and celebrated by Gillian’s family, including: Mark and Donna Shullenbarger; Christopher and Jessica Shullenbarger and their children Rebekah, Caleb, Elijah, Hadassah, Galilee, and Jubilee.
