With a Song in Her Heart

Polly Bergen has returned to her first love--singing. Though the 70-year-old actress is best known for her dramatic work in such feature films and TV movies as “Cape Fear,” “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance,” as well for her three best-selling books on beauty, Bergen began her career at 15 as a singer.

Bergen won an Emmy playing the famed torch singer in a live 1957 TV drama, “The Helen Morgan Story”; headlined her own variety series that year, “The Polly Bergen Show”; and recorded more than a dozen albums for Columbia Records. But as her acting career began to take precedence, Bergen stopped singing.

After a 30-year hiatus, she returned to singing last year, doing two benefits and then performing to rave reviews at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York last fall.

On Saturday, Bergen makes her first L.A. cabaret appearance in 36 years at Merv Griffin’s Coconut Club at the Beverly Hilton. Her show is called “Scene I, Act II.” Five days later, she begins rehearsals for the star-studded Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies,” which is set to open in April. Bergen will be playing the actress Carlotta.

Bergen discussed her return to singing recently over the phone from her New York apartment.

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Question: What prompted you to stop singing in the ‘60s?

Answer: There were a variety of things. I always thought of myself primarily as a singer. I never thought of myself as an actress, really. And I have many films to absolutely prove I had every right not to think of myself as an actress. But all of a sudden I did “Morgan” and I was doing one dramatic role after another.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I became totally trapped into either learning my craft or just simply not acting anymore. I am one of those people who, once I commit to doing something, then that becomes everything. The more involved I became with acting and acting lessons and studies, the less chance I had to sing.

What I did is that I made myself make a choice: You either are going to be an actress or a singer, which was stupid because the great value that I had was that I was a double threat. You make a lot of really stupid decisions when you are young, and that was my stupid decision. I just finally said I can’t do that and act as well, and so I gave up my singing.

Q: So how were you lured back?

A: I gave up smoking--it will be two years next month. I had not smoked in about six months when my manager called me and said they are doing a one-night-only benefit concert performance of “Company” in Florida and wondered if I might be interested in doing it. My manager had wanted me to sing again for a hundred years, as have most of my good friends. I said, “OK, I’ll do it.” I had not seen “Company” since it had been on Broadway and didn’t remember it at all. I had no idea how difficult the score was.

Q: Was it difficult to find your voice again?

A: I had been working with a singing teacher for about three months when the call came in, because I thought I’d like to see if I could do that again. I’d like to finish my life the way I began it, as a singer, because it always gave me great joy. Singing was the one thing--and working on a stage--that gave me more joy than anything I had ever done professionally.

I went down to Florida and did “Company,” and a number of people saw me there and the word began to spread I was singing again. I was received very well. I got a standing ovation. Then someone said, “Will you do this big AIDS benefit in Los Angeles?” I said, “OK.” There was not a single person in Los Angeles, including my own children, who knew I came to L.A. and sang. That was going to be the first time I walked out on stage and sang a solo. There were a number of people [who attended the benefit] who came backstage, and that started a little word of mouth.

Q: Your reviews for your cabaret show at Feinstein’s were fab.

A: They were really staggering. I have no idea what show they saw. Being as critical as I usually am on myself, there was a lot of stuff I wish I had done a hell of a lot better than I did.

I think the thing probably that I bring to a stage is a lot of years of living and because of the way I work on stage. I always worked as an acting singer. It was all about the lyrics and doing a dramatic scene or a comedy scene.

The difference is that I actually have lived that now. I used to sing [a song] and thought I had lived it at 35, at 30. Well at 70, there is actually not much that is written that I actually haven’t lived. I really try to take people on a journey. I try to take them on a journey that most of them have lived one time or another.

Q: How did you choose the songs for your act?

A: I started with a list of 500. I cut it down to 200 and got it down to about 80. By the time I got to about 35 or 40 songs, it became very, very difficult.

I’m doing a lot of stuff that people may never have heard. I’m doing some obscure Broadway things. I do a song actually written for Sandra Dee to sing in a movie and it ended up being dubbed [in the movie] by someone else. But it was a song that just knocked me out, “I Haven’t Got Anything Better to Do.” I do a Janis Ian song, “Stars.”

Q: You must be excited and nervous about performing your own show in L.A. for the first time since 1965.

A: I must say I have a little bit of nervousness even though I know I’ll be surrounded by friends. At the same time, you want everyone to love what you are doing. Those things never change.

* Polly Bergen performs “Scene I, Act II,” Saturday at 10 p.m. at Merv Griffin’s Coconut Club at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, 9876 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Admission is $50. For reservations, call (310) 285-1358.