Liliane Montevecchi will reprise her Tony-nominated role of Elizaveta Grushinskaya, the faded ballerina, in Grand Hotel Oct. 12-24 at Houston's Theatre Under the Stars.
Montevecchi, a prima ballerina herself at age 18, starred in the films "Daddy Long Legs" with Fred Astaire, "Young Lions" with Marlon Brando and "King Creole" with Elvis Presley. She won a Tony and Drama Desk Award for her performance in Nine. Recent theatre work includes Gigi for TUTS in 1998 and the Madison Square Garden touring production of The Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West.
Grand Hotel, based on the 1927 Vicki Baum novel "Menschen in Hotel," follows the various guests of a 1930's hotel in Berlin: a flapper typist, a handsome playboy baron, a crooked business man, a dying bookkeeper and an aging ballerina. Songs in the Robert Wright-George Forrest (Kismet) score include "Maybe My Baby Loves Me," "Who Couldn't Dance With You?" and "We'll Take a Glass Together." Maury Yeston and Peter Stone (Titanic) lent their talents to the show in its pre Broadway tryout in Boston, adding Yeston songs including Grushinskaya's "Love Can't Happen" and "Bonjour Amour." Grand Hotel went on to win five Tony Awards and five Drama Desk Awards.
Tickets ($55-$16) are available by calling (800) 678-5440. Theatre Under the Stars is located at and on the web at http://www.tuts.com.
-- By Christine Ehren