Place your iPhone in front of Liliane Montevecchi, and she coos and caresses it with wide-eyed fascination. "Look how cute, this little thing!" she says, turning it over. "I am, you know, so bad about all of those technical things. When I see one, I want one, but I would not know how to work it! My grandmother never touched a telephone. She was scared to death of them. I would say, 'Meme, this is ridiculous!' I feel very bad now because I was rude to her, and now I am her age and exactly the same with those iPod stuffs."
While she may never be a geek, the 77-year-old actress-singer is still the essence of chic, which makes her perfect for Teatro ZinZanni's next edition, titled Love, Chaos, Couture: All Dressed Up and Somewhere To Go. The production is an affectionate send-up of high fashion, and boasts 13 new costumes by fanciful Taiwanese designer Luly Yang.
Offer Montevecchi the popular appellations of legendary or diva, and she scoffs politely. "Yes," she says, folding her hands in mock solemnity before barking, "They're wrong!" and bursting into laughter. "No, I love it. Why not? I'm not a diva . I think of myself as a healthy, disciplined, respectful performer, happy to do what I do. That people still want to see me makes me young in my heart and my head. And the legend? Well, of course! I'm an old bag, and I like it!"
Originally a ballerina with Roland Petit's famed company, Montevecchi came to the attention of filmmakers while on tour in New York. Initially uninterested, Montevecchi consented to a screen test only after learning Petit planned to take a long hiatus following the tour. "I said, 'I am a ballerina, and I will die a ballerina!'" She tested for Ingrid Bergman's part in For Whom the Bell Tolls. "I could not speak a word of English. I had to learn it all phonetically, and did not understand a thing."
Despite the linguistic issues, Montevecchi was offered a seven-year contract. She became one of several European dancers wooed by the studios in the 1950s, like Zizi Jeanmaire, Moira Shearer and Leslie Caron, with whom she appeared in Daddy Long Legs. "I don't know what the fascination was," she shrugs. "We were all pixies, I guess. I went to school with the children at MGM to learn English. I had to learn many things. I had teachers for diction, drama, fencing, singing. I was busy every hour from morning to night. I loved it. Norma Shearer sort of adopted me, and was like my mother there."
Movie musicals began to fade in the late 60s, and Montevecchi looked to the stage for new outlets. She toured with the Folies Bergeres for nine years, after the Tommy Tune musical Nine gave Montevecchi her greatest popularity in America, plus a Tony Award and a signature song, and it happened by chance.
Heading for Paris, Montevecchi was persuaded by good friend Jacqueline Stone, mother of director Oliver Stone, to miss her New York connection and stay in Manhattan for a visit. "I called my agent to arrange some tickets to shows, and he told me about a new musical and that I should audition that afternoon. It was winter, so I arrived dragging a floor-length mink coat and a big hat and was just myself. I sang 'La Vie en Rose' a cappella because I had no music with me."
The next day, she had a job. "My agent said, 'They don't know what to do with you, but they want you!' The part was written specifically for me. Arthur Kopit, the writer, would have lunch with me to listen to the way I talked and put it in the script. I didn't see the film," she says of Rob Marshall's recent effort that put Judi Dench in her part, "and I never will because I will cry. I saw the revival with Banderas and it was fine, but the original was Tommy's vision, Tommy's imagination, and I don't want anybody to touch that. So I'm not interested in seeing it, and I'm glad it's not working!"
What does work for Montevecchi is her relationship with Teatro ZinZanni. She has appeared many times in both the SF and Seattle spiegeltents. Echoing the title of her current show, she says that she returns because of "love, tenderness, drollery �" because it's funny �" and the cast is always magnificent. The whole thing for me is like a recreation. I'm comfortable. It's like my house. I like to come back here because I feel loved and wanted. I don't have a family any more, so each time I come here it is like visiting my family, really."
Liliane Montevecchi in Teatro ZinZanni: Love, Chaos, Couture, opens May 20, Wed.-Sat. at 6 p.m., Sun at 5 p.m. Tickets ($117-$145, includes dinner): (415) 438-2668 or www.zinzanni.org.