Olivier and Molière Award winner, Grammy nominated singer/actor, Ute Lemper makes a rare Bay Area appearance at the Orinda Theatre with her one-woman homage to Marlene Dietrich Rendezvous with Marlene.
Theatergoers are in for a rare treat on Feb. 4, when the Orinda Theatre presents its second Live at the Orinda! musical evening with the incomparable Ute Lemper making a rare Bay Area appearance with her riveting one-woman show.
Written and performed by the New York-based German singer, Rendezvous with Marlene is Lemper’s personal homage to one of the most beautiful women in the 20th century to grace the silver screen – the enigmatic, and often controversial, Marlene Dietrich.
“I really love to channel Marlene,” said Lemper. “It is a deep role, with a big personality. Marlene had a sad spirit at the end, but all her life she was absolutely emancipated, fearless and outspoken, way ahead of her time. She leveled with the men and broke all rules and conventions. She was a woman of the future.”
Based on a lengthy phone call more than 35 years ago, Lemper’s solo performance takes the form of a dialogue between herself and Dietrich, exploring the older woman’s career in a timeline that looks back on Dietrich’s life until her story gradually combines with Lemper’s own.
The exchange between the two actors began in the late eighties after Lemper received a Molière award for her Paris performance as Sally Bowles in the musical, Cabaret. When a sudden media frenzy arose around this young German newcomer, Lemper decided to drop Dietrich a postcard apologizing for all the attention comparing the two actors.
Those few lines on a postcard morphed into an amazing three-hour phone conversation that eventually evolved into an extraordinary telling of Dietrich’s convoluted story. In her performance Lemper transforms into the older actor, thrilling audiences as she flawlessly reproduces Dietrich’s familiar body of work, from her Berlin cabaret years to her legendary Burt Bacharach collaborations.
Lemper explains how she manages to get so authentically into Dietrich’s skin.
“I just need to understand the melancholy that she exhibited in that phone call with me … her bitterness, but also her freedom of speech,” said Lemper. “It was only many years later that I fully grasped the tragedy of her story, her sadness at the injustice of being called a ‘Traitor of the Fatherland.’ She fought for the Americans against Nazi Germany, entertaining the troops for 18 months at the front lines. Dietrich was honored with many medals, but at home, she was shunned until her death in 1992.”
Michael Williams, producer of the Live at the Orinda! concert series, is thrilled the Orinda Theatre has managed to snare the unparalleled performer.
“This marks only the second time in 20 years that this internationally acclaimed singer and actor has performed here, so we’re honored to present her,” he said.
There was a rush to buy tickets as soon as Williams announced he’d managed to lure Lemper back to Orinda, but he says that although her show sold out two months in advance “we do have a waitlist for those who are interested.”
Live at the Orinda! is a concert series featuring world-class performers from around the globe in specially curated musical evenings at the iconic Orinda Theatre. Located at 2 Orinda Theatre Square. For the waitlist, call 925.254.9060 or go to orindamovies.com/events/.
