| Liliane Montevecchi | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 13, 1932 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Actress, dancer, singer |
| Years active | 1953–present |
Liliane Montevecchi (born October 13, 1932, Paris, France) is a French actress, dancer, and singer.
Montevecchi began her career as a prima ballerina in Roland Petit's dance company. In the mid-1950s, she was signed to a contract by MGM, which cast her in secondary roles in such films as The Glass Slipper and Daddy Long Legs, in both of which she was overshadowed by leading lady Leslie Caron, the Jerry Lewis vehicle The Sad Sack, and King Creole with Elvis Presley.
After some television work in series such as Playhouse 90 and Adventures in Paradise at the end of the decade, Montevecchi opted to leave Hollywood for a star spot in the Folies Bergère and toured with the company for nine years. Montevecchi replaced Colette Brosset in the 1958 Broadway revue La Plume de Ma Tante.
It was not until 1982 that she drew both critical and popular attention for her performance as Lilaine La Fleur in Nine, for which she won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Montevecchi was given the role of Solange LaFitte for the 1985 production of Follies in Concert at Avery Fisher Hall. In 1989 she starred as Elizaveta Grushinskaya in Grand Hotel, earning a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.
Montevecchi also appeared in the films Wall Street and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Montevecchi has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and toured internationally with her semi-autobiographical shows On the Boulevard and Back on the Boulevards. Her solo album On the Boulevard was released by Jay Records in 1998.[1]
In 1999, she replaced Eartha Kitt as The Wicked Witch of The West in Radio City Entertainment's touring production of The Wizard of Oz co-starring Mickey Rooney as The Wizard and Jessica Grove as Dorothy. Montevecchi appeared as The Witch during the show's limited run at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
In 2007 in Seattle, Washington,[2] Montevecchi had a very successful turn as "Madame ZinZanni" at the Teatro ZinZanni. She returned to Teatro ZinZanni in June 2009 to reprise the role and will return again in September 2011 for her final bow in the show Bonsoir Liliane, starring alongside Kevin Kent, directed by Tommy Tune and choreographed by Tobias Larsson.
|
||||||||
|
||||||||