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Liliane
Montevecchi was
born in Paris, France, where she began dancing at nine-years-old, later
becoming prima ballerina at Roland Petit's ballet company. In the
early 1950s, Liliane was signed to an exclusive contract with M-G-M and
began appearing in their musicals. However, film appearances beside
Leslie Caron and Elvis Presley did very little to establish Montevecchi as
a major talent, so for nine years she travelled all over the world,
headlining with the Folies Bergères. Her biggest
break came when Tommy Tune cast her in a role that had one line in his new
musical adaptation of Fellini's 8½. It was soon discovered
that Montevecchi really had a way with a song, so that single line was
soon expanded to several scenes, and Maury Yeston composed a
show-stopper specifically tailored to her talents, entitled (appropriately
enough) "Folies Bergères." So, when Nine (1982)
opened on Broadway, Montevecchi walked away with a Tony Award for Best
Supporting Actress in a Musical as Guido Contini's producer, Liliane
LeFleur-- all for a role that was initially supposed to have only one
line! In 1990, She earned a second Tony nod for her performance as
Elizaveta Grushinskaya in another Tommy Tune-Maury Teston musical, Grand
Hotel. (Diva connection: this role had been redeveloped from
being an opera singer, as played by Joan
Diener in At the Grand in the 1950s!) She recreated
Liliane LeFleur in the original London concert staging of Nine
(1992), played Solange LaFitte in Sondheim's Follies in Concert
(1985) with the New York Philharmonic, then reprised that role in
the acclaimed 1998 Paper Mill Playhouse revival of Follies, as
well as appearing in Sandy Wilson's Divorce Me, Darling! (1997),
a sequel to The Boyfriend. Her one woman shows-- On
the Boulevard and Back on the Boulevard-- have played many
different venues, and this woman shows no signs of stopping now! |
