Succumbing to the Siren’s Songs : The Role of Dietrich in ‘An Evening With Marlene’ Proves Irresistible for Salome Jens

Marlene Dietrich was a movie legend, a mysterious beauty, a seductive chanteuse. The apparition of this exotic, blond siren in a top hat, smoking a cigarette through an elegant stem, will reign forever among the images of Hollywood in the ‘30s.

The public Marlene is captured indelibly in photographs and on film. But her Hollywood triumph accounts for little more than a decade of the life of this remarkable woman who is still living, in Paris, where at age 90 she reportedly reads two dozen newspapers a day and doesn’t hesitate to offer her opinions to the heads of state she telephones.

Who is she, really? A woman who stood by her own beliefs, according to actress Salome Jens, who portrays Dietrich in a one-woman show entitled “An Evening With Marlene: Falling in Love Again,” opening Saturday at the Grove Shakespeare Festival’s Gem Theatre in Garden Grove.

“She was so on time,” said Jens, “and by that I mean ahead of her time. The questions her life asks are on time now: ‘Who am I? How do I feel? Am I willing to make the sacrifices to put my money where my mouth is?’ ”

The script by Sebastian Milito, adapted from Dietrich’s autobiography “Marlene,” reveals some of the ways in which Dietrich lived by her own lights. At the height of World War II, when Hitler demanded her return to her native Germany, Dietrich renounced her German citizenship, joined the U.S. Army and spent the next four years entertaining the troops overseas. When the Allies liberated the death camps, Dietrich went with the troops into Belsen and brought out her own sister.

After the war, Dietrich returned to performing in clubs, which is where the audience will discover her in “An Evening With Marlene.”

“It’s her first performance in a club since her success in the movies, and she has no idea what the response will be,” Jens explained. With her voice like caramel syrup, it isn’t hard to imagine Jens putting over a tune, although she admits that she doesn’t think of herself as a singer.

“Two years ago, I would have said (for me to sing) was impossible. But Marlene is such a help. She wasn’t a singer, either. But she put her own stamp on everything. Most of the songs are woven dramatically into the event, so I think of them as soliloquies, stories.”

This is Jens’ second experience with a one-woman show--she’s accompanied by Armin Hoffman--having received accolades for her role as poet Anne Sexton in “. . . About Anne,” which she performed several times in Los Angeles during the ‘80s.

“When you are doing a powerful woman, you’re never alone,” Jens said. “I always have Marlene. We are quoting her verbatim, and her words are wonderful.”

“An Evening With Marlene” is a three-way collaboration between Jens, Milito and director Jules Aaron. Two years ago, Jens brainstormed the material with her friend Milito, and then approached Aaron, with whom she was working on August Strindberg’s drama “The Pelican.” He signed on immediately.

The rights to Dietrich’s two autobiographies, which she wrote to refute stories other people had printed about her, have for years been in the possession of Fred J. Scotti. He and his brother had previously attempted, unsuccessfully, to adapt the material into a musical. Finally, last year, Scotti sanctioned an earlier version of “An Evening With Marlene,” which ran for five performances at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, partly as a trial run on the piece, and partly to re-secure the rights, which were about to expire.

The Grove’s production, however, will allow her a full month in the role. “It’s wonderful to work this way,” said Jens, “without pressure. In the old days in New York, we used to always go out of town (to hone a show). We need the audience to tell us what is working and what isn’t. They are the final character in the play.”

As for Dietrich’s opinion about the whole thing, no one knows. She lives very privately. When Maximilian Schell conducted a filmed interview with her some years ago, she refused to be seen on screen and wouldn’t leave her apartment to film elsewhere. But before the cameras came into her home, she completely dismantled the place so that her way of living would not be recorded.

As for Jens, she’s a far cry from the hermitage, what with a steady and acclaimed career encompassing Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater, summer stock, film and television. Jens, a 10-year Los Angeles resident, has performed on local stages and recently directed a film, winning a grant from the American Film Institute’s Directing Women’s Workshop.

Jens emanates a relaxed vitality that must work well in her performance as Marlene Dietrich, a woman who continued giving concerts well into her 70s.

Dietrich, adored on two continents, has lived by her own assessment of herself, which she shared in this confession to her longtime friend Ernest Hemingway: “I don’t have your courage to confront death. My courage is in confronting life.”

* “An Evening With Marlene: Falling in Love Again” starring Salome Jens opens Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Gem Theatre, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove. Through Feb. 16. Tickets: $18 to $22. (Preview performances are tonight and Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets: $16.) Information: (714) 636-7213.