Moreno still brings style and sizzle

Hollywood legend Rita Moreno has acted for the big screen, in hit TV shows and on theater stages, but she always looks forward to performing her one-woman cabaret show.

"I much prefer live performances, it's more spontaneous, it's happening in the moment," she said. "On camera, you have to do things over and over and make it look like you're being spontaneous."

Moreno will perform a repertoire of Broadway songs, jazz and Spanish classics Saturday in Skokie. Her show is not just about the music, but also about connecting with the audience, she said.

"I follow with anecdotes about the people who wrote the songs and tell about the history of the songs," she said. "It's really fun to do research about all that and it gives people something more than a performance."

Moreno, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., is starring in the CBS series "Cane" a drama set in Florida that also stars Jimmy Smits and Hector Elizondo.

"It's like 'Dynasty' without all the bling, combined with 'The Godfather'," she said. "You have never seen a Hispanic family like this on TV."

Moreno is the only Latina to receive all four top awards in show business: an Oscar in 1962 for her best supporting actress role in "West Side Story," Emmys in 1977 and 1978 for appearances on "The Muppet Show" and "The Rockford Files," a Tony in 1975 for her part in "The Ritz" and a Grammy in 1972 for "The Electric Company Album."

Only 11 other performers, including Mel Brooks, Audrey Hepburn and Whoopi Goldberg, have achieved this feat.

She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and will be inducted in the California Hall of Fame along with Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, Tiger Woods and others in December.

All her trophies are on display in a "very long" shelf in her living room, but it is the Oscar that makes her most proud, she said.

"It's the one that really matters, isn't it? At least, in my profession," she said.

Moreno, 76, was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New York City with her mother at age 5 after her parents divorced. To make ends meet, her mother worked as seamstress and in restaurants and the two labored together to make paper roses they sold to Woolworth's retail stores, Moreno said.

She started working in the movie industry at age 11, dubbing American films into Spanish. Two years later she got her first role in a Broadway play and for the next decade played what she called "almost caricatures" in movies.

"I was the Spanish spitfire, always speaking with a heavy accent, with the eye-rolling and the hip-twisting," she said. "Those were the roles back then."

Latinos have since made enormous strides in the world of entertainment, as pioneers like her showed people that their on-screen roles were nothing but stereotypes, Moreno said.

"The change I think came from going on the talk shows, as people saw that I spoke English not only well, but probably better than the hosts," she said.

"I'm the one who ran the gauntlet -- J-Lo (Jennifer Lopez) doesn't have a clue."

If you go

What: Rita Moreno on stage

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Centre East theater, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie

Tickets: $70

Info: box office at (847) 673-6300; www.centreeast.org