It’s not often I get to talk to a living legend, but then it’s not often that a living legend such as Shirley MacLaine comes to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
The Academy Award-winning actress, singer, dancer and author brings her one-woman show, An Evening with Shirley MacLaine, to the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall this Saturday at 8 p.m.
During the show, she’ll share personal stories, photos and film clips from her illustrious Hollywood career and fascinating personal life. She’ll discuss everything from her childhood to hanging out with The Rat Pack. The evening includes a Q&A session with the audience.
At least that’s what her press material says.
During a recent phone interview from her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that felt like I was talking to an old friend (which we might have been in past lives, but that’s another story), I learned that MacLaine likes living on the edge.
“I have nothing planned,” she confided. “I actually do a little meditation and ask not to know what’s going to happen. I don’t want anything planned, I feel that way about my life, although I have a dancer’s discipline. I’m writing a book with the same work ethic. I do four hours a day, or four pages. I have to obey these discipline laws I give myself.”
“I’m in love with struggle,” she continued. “Then you feel like you’ve won something, like inner peace, or a sense of contentment. Struggle is part of creativity, and that would be the death of me if I could not be creative. I don’t want to be joyously happy anymore, and I don’t want to be depressed. I like the in between middle—contentment. I get that with my work ethic.”
I started to ask her about her writing career, but she half-jokingly interrupted and said “I don’t call myself a writer, I simply put down the adventures. I can’t call myself a writer.”
And yet her books have been best sellers, as have her films. She’s worked with the great directors from Hitchcock to Wilder, and starred opposite a who’s who of Hollywood.
She was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, although she laughed and stated “getting up in the morning is an award.”
“So who comes to see these shows in Costa Mesa?” she asked me.
“Well, you’ll probably get a lot of people from Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Coast, actually all over Southern California since this is your only appearance,” I replied. “You’ll be able to tell the people from Newport—their jewelry rattles when they applaud.”
“Now that’s funny,” she replied with a laugh.
I asked her about the Q&A section of her show, which seemed like it would be a highlight for the audience.
“I had one guy who proposed to me and went into a little dance,” she recalled. “Usually people want to know about my books, my career, reincarnation, Hollywood, what the world is coming to. You allow the audience to be themselves, whatever is on their minds. I love to break that fourth wall. I love the spontaneity. I learned a lot from Dean and Frank, they loved to let the audience in on what they were doing. You have to have self-confidence.”
MacLaine’s self-confidence will be on full display during An Evening with Shirley MacLaine. Tickets start at $39. Visit SCFTA.org or call (714) 556-2787.
