hollywood: Liliane Montevecchi

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Liliane Montevecchi

Paris-born entertainer Liliane Montevecchi first put on ballet shoes at the age of 9. Nine years later she became prima ballerina in Roland Petit's ballet company. Hollywood took a sudden interest in her in the early 50s along with other foreign-born ballet dancers such asLeslie Caron, Zizi Jeanmaire, and Moira Shearer.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 Brossetin 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.