Stephanie Zimbalist is no demanding diva for the Seven Angels Theatre production of “Living on Love” in Waterbury.
At least off-stage, the star of the ’80s hit TV series “Remington Steele” — the show that gained her fame and placed Pierce Brosnan into James Bondage — is funny, unaffected and as easygoing as you remember that charming, sharp-witted, stylish sleuth Laura Holt to be.
The actor, 59, also cares for her late mother’s infirm, long-haired dachshund Scampi with doting concern, and talks touchingly of her father, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (TV’s “77 Sunset Strip,” “Maverick,” “The F.B.I.”), who died last year at the age of 95.
She’s also more than game for a fun run at Seven Angels Theatre in order to play a plum part.
Here’s the story of “Living on Love” that begins performances Thursday, Nov. 12, as described in the theater’s press materials: “When a demanding opera diva discovers that her larger-than-life maestro husband has become enamored with the lovely young lady hired to ghostwrite his largely fictional autobiography, she hires a handsome, young scribe of her own. As the young writers try to keep themselves out of the story while churning out chapters, the high-energy — and high-maintenance — power duet threatens to fall out of tune for good. Sparks fly, silverware is thrown and romance blossoms in the most unexpected ways.”
OK, Ms. Z may not be a temperamental diva, but playing a full-bodied opera singer who has to hit some high notes in the show?
Just listen. She arches her back, clears her throat, takes a breath and lets out some power notes that came close to shaking the pavilion windows — though Scampi remains blase (she’s heard it all before.) Yes, indeed, Zimbalist has some set of chops. After all, she has classical music and training in her DNA.
Zimbalist’s paternal grandfather, Efram Zimbalist, was a world-famous Russian concert violinist, composer and music teacher at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Her paternal grandmother was Alma Gluck, a renown Romanian soprano. Zimbalist herself studied classical singing for six years with Natalie Bodanya of the Metropolitan Opera, who studied with Marcella Sembrich, who coached Zimbalist’s grandmother.
And though her dad may be best remembered as a cool crime-fighter in a conservative suit, there’s music in his bones, too. She takes out her smartphone and shares a recording of her father’s Christmas album where he sang “Ava Maria” with a booming baritone that was stunning.
Why had he never starred on the musical stage, either in opera or Broadway? “He had a family to support,” Zimbalist says with an understanding smile.
New York-born and Los Angeles-raised Zimbalist knew from an early age that performance was her destiny. But from her family’s ranch in California’s San Fernando Valley, she was removed and protected from the industry-swirl of Hollywood.
Despite her father’s high profile, “It wasn’t like I was an insider. But that can work for you and against you.”
Still, she wanted to be part of the family business of performing ,but soon discovered she had to do it herself, in her own way.
Her first role was playing one of the singing newsboys in a Vermont summer camp production of “Gypsy.”
She returned to her family’s ranch determined to study acting, movement, voice, tap and ballet. After attending New York’s Juilliard School to study music and acting following high school, she was on her way.
Her early acting gigs came in a seemingly constant string of TV movies of the late ’70s and early ’80s: “The Gathering” with Ed Asner, “The Magic of Lassie,” “The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal,” “Tomorrow’s Child” and the miniseries based on James A. Michener’s “Centennial.”
While she was starting her TV career, she continued to study voice. “I’m not a singer-singer, I’m not. But to be in the land of the plasticity of television and be able to be working on Schubert, Puccini and all those great composers it just kind of settled everything down for me. It gave me a reality and a strength and a centeredness that most young television actresses didn’t have.”
Another anchor for Zimbalist was her theater work.
Even when “Remington Steele” brought her a higher profile and larger audience, she would return regularly to the stage. She played opposite Tommy Tune in the 1987 tour of the musical “My One and Only.” Her first gig in Connecticut was in the late ’80s in Long Wharf Theatre production of “The Cherry Orchard,” followed in 1990 by a role with Linda Purl in a new Jane Anderson play, “The Baby Dance” that transferred to off-Broadway. She returned to Connecticut for the premiere of Dan Lauria’s “The Crimson Thread” at Seven Angels in 1994.
From 2006 to 2012, she played Katharine Hepburn in various productions of Matthew Lombardo’s solo play, “Tea At Five” (which had its world premiere at Hartford Stage with Kate Mulgrew). She played Hannah Jelkes to her father’s Nonno in “Night of the Iguana,” starred in “Follies,” “A Little Night Music” (twice), “Hamlet” “The Lion in Winter” and, last year, in “Sex and Education.”
She has had guest roles on TV in series such as “Judging Amy,” “Crossing Jordan,” “Touched By an Angel,” “Nash Bridges” and “Family Law.”
Also in the cast of “Living on Love” is Steve Vinovich (whose Connecticut gigs go back to the ’70s in “Twelfth Night” at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford), Ivoryton Playhouse regular Bruce Connelly, Michael Irvin Pollard, Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman.
The comedy is by Tony Award-winner Joe DiPietro based on the ’50s play “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin. The revised comedy had its premiere last year at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the Massachusetts Berkshires with opera star Renee Fleming and Douglas Sills.
The show transferred to Broadway last season, but after soft reviews and lackluster box office it closed after a short run.
LIVING ON LOVE plays at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road at Hamilton Park Pavilion in Waterbury, from Thursday, Nov. 12 to Dec. 6. Performances are Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. There is a 2 p.m. matinee on Nov. 19, and there will be a 2 and 8 p.m. performance on Nov. 24 instead of the Nov. 26 Thanksgiving shows. Tickets are $33 to $55. Information: 203-757-4676 and sevenangelstheatre.org.
