Beloved Broadway singing coach dies after hard shove in Manhattan

Deadline reported that Gustern had been rehearsing an upcoming cabaret show in her apartment with collaborators Barbara Bleier, Paul Greenwood and actor / playwright Austin Pendleton on the night of the incident. She had left to go to Joe’s Pub for a performance by one of her students when she was shoved.

According to The New York TimesGustern was awake initially after the attack, telling a friend at the scene, “I’ve never been hit so hard in my life.” She also reportedly told police that her assailant “shouted a derogatory term before assaulting her.” She was initially taken to a nearby hospital, then transferred to Bellevue Medical Center, where she underwent emergency surgery.

On Saturday, Gustern’s grandson AJ Gustern wrote on Facebook that she had suffered “traumatic damage to the left side of her brain, and has been unconscious the entire time” since reaching the hospital.

“I apologize if it takes me awhile to respond, but I am incomprehensibly broken inside,” he added. “I struggle to understand and cope with this world on a daily basis, and frankly this is beyond my ability to bear.”

As she recounted to the New York Post in 2020, Gustern grew up in Indiana, came to NYC with Broadway aspirations, and ended up becoming a celebrated vocal coach. In the 1980s, she worked with singer and performance artist Diamanda Galás, which led to her coaching Blondie’s Debbie Harry and being introduced to the downtown NYC cabaret scene. Her career eventually led to her working with the cast of Daniel Fish’s 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!

Earlier in the day on March 10, Gustern wrote on Facebook that she was feeling optimistic about the future.

“Is there a sudden shift in planetary alignment?” she wrote. “Something is cosmically different for me. I went through a period of feeling detached. I could not remember lyrics. I felt like my voice had totally abandoned me. The thought of doing a show was like sentencing me to be tortured. But as of today all that is reversed. I feel full of creativity, joy at working on a beautiful show with people I adore and totally respect. I feel like a singer again for the first time in forever. What happened? I have not a clue .But whatever it is I am more than grateful .I am extatic [sic]. “