Barbara Cook (born October 25, 1927) is a Tony Award-winning American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after creating roles in the Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man, among others. In the seventies, she began a second career that continues to this day as a cabaret and concert singer. Cook is widely recognized as one of the "premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim