A Rare Chance to Act Their Ages

Hit it, girls!

Charlotte Rae, Jane Kean and Marni Nixon just met the day before. But you wouldn’t know it. The three have bonded like lifelong friends. The veterans of Broadway, nightclubs, television and movies are gabbing up a storm around a small table in an otherwise empty room at El Portal Theatre. It’s their lunch break from rehearsals for the concert revival of the 1971 John Kander-Fred Ebb musical, “70, Girls, 70,” opening Thursday at the North Hollywood theater.

Rae, 76, and Kean, 78, have brought their lunches. Nixon, the baby of the group at 72, is waiting rather impatiently for a salad from Pink Dot. Lively, funny and gossipy--most of their stories are strictly off the record--the three are members of a mutual admiration society. “We both performed in nightclubs,” says Kean, looking over at Rae, who is eating fruit and hard-boiled eggs.

“Today they call it cabaret, but we then called it nightclubs,” Rae says. “I did a lot of satire. I did the Bon Soir, Cafe Society....”

“All I know is that these were very famous women,” says Nixon, who appeared two years ago at the Ahmanson in “James Joyce’s The Dead” and is known for ghost-singing Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady.”

“I was thrilled to be part of this cast,” Nixon says. “I had heard so much about them.”

Based on Peter Coke’s play “A Breath of Spring,” the wacky musical comedy “70, Girls, 70” focuses on a group of retired entertainers living in a hotel that is in danger of being torn down. Through a series of quirky circumstances, the performers decide the only way to save the hotel from the wrecking ball is to steal mink coats from New York City’s toniest shops and sell them, using the money to purchase the hotel. Besides Rae, Kean and Nixon, this production also stars Robert Mandan of “Soap” fame and William Schallert, forever known to baby boomers as Patty Duke’s father on “The Patty Duke Show.”

Despite its lively Kander and Ebb score, which includes “Old Folks,” “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup,” “Boom Ditty Boom” and “Go Visit Your Grandmother,” and a cast that included Mildred Natwick, Hans Conried and Lillian Roth, “70, Girls, 70” ran for only 35 performances when it opened on Broadway in April 1971. Tragedy had struck the production: Broadway star David Burns had died on stage during tryouts in Philadelphia.

“My best friend, mentor, Dutch uncle, surrogate father was David Burns,” says director Jim Brochu. “I was at all the rehearsals with David. It was a show that I just loved.”

Directing “70, Girls, 70,” he says, “is a 30-year dream come true.”

But Norman Martin’s book, Brochu acknowledges, never worked. “It has been rewritten over the course of the past 30 years,” Brochu says, adding that the original never had a focus. “There were 22 people in the original cast, and each had their own story. Now there are only eight lead actors, so we really focus on the gang.” For this production, Kander and Ebb have written a new song. “I Move On,” which Rae sings.

Because of financial and time considerations, the show is being done as a concert. “I wanted to let the production values go away and let the book and the musical and lyrics shine through and tell the story as laser-focused as we can,” Brochu says.

“The wonderful thing about this musical is that they do step out of the book and say, ‘We’re doing our number now.’ The numbers are going to be staged, whereas the book is pretty much going to be in hand.”

None of the actresses saw the show in 1971. “We weren’t born then,” says Kean, who appeared in the 1960s version of “The Honeymooners” as Trixie. “We are wearing age makeup.”

“I was living in Seattle in the ‘70s,” Nixon says. “I was working in New York off and on, but I wasn’t aware of the show until years later. I do ‘Go Visit Your Grandmother’ in my own one-woman show. That’s how come I know that song.”

Nixon describes her character, Eunice, as ditsy and eager, akin to Betty White in television’s “The Golden Girls.”

“She’s sort of in a different place, not really dumb. She has her own world going on. That is my take on it.” She glances over at Rae, who did a staged reading of the revised version of “70, Girls, 70” in New York two years ago. “You’ve done it before,” she says to her co-star. “Is that about the right take?”

“Yeah,” says Rae, who appeared on Broadway as Mammy Yokum in “Li’l Abner” as well as the TV series “Car 54, Where Are You?” and “The Facts of Life.” “You are on the right track. Absolutely.”

Rae’s Ida, the mastermind behind the fur thefts, is a jolly soul who is keeping a secret from her hotel mates. “She accidentally, because of circumstances, lifts a thermometer from a store,” she says. Ida becomes so exhilarated after her shoplifting experience that she begins taking furs from the likes of Bloomingdale’s.

“She talks everyone into realizing they are going to tear down the hotel. Where are they going to live? They are all wonderful actors who are in the teatime of their life. Nobody cares two cents about them. So she says, ‘Let’s have a fur heist.’”

Kean’s Gert is the drama queen. “At first I don’t want to participate. A gang at our age? Ridiculous,” Kean says. “But finally, to save the hotel, I agree to go along with it.”

“We are Robin Hoods,” Nixon says. “We are kicking up our heels and having fun doing it.”

The rehearsal schedule covers a scant two weeks. “It’s insane,” says Rae with a good-natured roll of her eyes. Kean points out that it reminds her of doing summer stock when she was an ingenue.

“I spent a whole summer in Rhode Island at a theater by the sea,” she recalls.

“I have been there,” Rae says.

“I would be doing one play at night and then rehearsing for the play next week during daytime,” Kean says. “I think once you do that, it’s wonderful training.”

“I didn’t do summer stock,” Nixon says. “But I wish I had. I wish I had had all of that training.”

Kean takes a bite of her chicken salad. “Didn’t you work with Liberace?” she asks Nixon. “I know he was very fond of you.”

“Yes, I toured with him,” Nixon says with a warm smile. “I just learned so much about show business. He would make all the orchestrations for you. He had his hairdresser do my hair, and he would design my costumes. He even designed my suitcase.”

None of the actresses needs to work these days, but they still love to ply their craft. “We are offered things, but sometimes they are things we don’t want to do,” Rae says. In the case of “70, Girls, 70,” she adds, “it’s not like ‘Gee, we get a chance to work,’ but ‘It’s such a wonderful show.’”

“It’s a luxury to work today,” Kean adds. “It’s not that you have to work, but you do something that you enjoy. We need to exercise those acting musicals. It’s very important to keep up the timing.”

For Nixon, this gig is all about having fun.

“Forget about the money,” she says. “Forget about the small theaters. Let’s have some fun--good, fun theater with good people. You are working with people your equal and going to have some fun with your craft.”

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“70, GIRLS, 70,” El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Dates: Opens Thursday at 8 p.m. Plays Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.; Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 7 p.m. Ends June 9. Prices: $25-$45. Phone: (818) 508-4200.

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Susan King is a Times staff writer.