Lucie Arnaz Steps Out of Her Parents’ Shadows to Earn Her Own Place in the Acting World
.
By Adrian Zupp — Spotlight correspondent
.
It never hurts to ask, so the saying goes. No doubt Roy Rogosin, founder of the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, would drink to that old saw. In what amounts to a real coup for Rogosin and his theater, the Rep chief has managed to entice the illustrious Lucie Arnaz to the Seacoast to star in the upcoming SRT production of “Master Class.”
Arnaz, who will play the lead role of renowned opera diva Maria Callas, is the daughter of legendary showbiz couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. But these days she is an accomplished actor and performer in her own right, boasting a resume loaded with Broadway and Hollywood credits.
“I was invited by Roy Rogosin to come up there and be a part of their season,” says Arnaz. “The original date that they had planned (for “Master Class”), I wasn’t available, and he flipped the whole season so that he could work it out and have me do it.”
Rogosin also offered to have Arnaz’s favorite director, Don Amendolia, come to Portsmouth and direct the show.
“That was a good package so I couldn’t turn it down,” says the 47-year-old actress.
Arnaz, who has never been to Portsmouth, says she has heard “great things about it” from friends. And while she is looking forward to getting acquainted with the city, her enthusiasm surely doesn’t surpass that which Seacoast theatergoers have for seeing her on stage.
The glare of the public spotlight first shone on Arnaz as a teen when she was a regular on her mom’s show “Here’s Lucy.” though such an opportunity may seem to have been almost preordained, Arnaz says that, for her, it was not an automatic decision.
“When my mother was changing formats for her show, they suggested that she have two children in this particular show that were about teenage ages,” she remembers. “She suggested that we (Arnaz and her brother) play her kids — but I wasn’t too sure I really wanted to do it, to tell the truth. I thought, you know, this is not the best of all possible worlds, because I knew what people would think: ‘Oh well that was a hard job to get.’ Like anybody who goes into their parents’ business, they have to prove themselves twice as much.”
The show ran six years and was number one in the ratings for most of that time. Arnaz looks back on the experience now as “a great education.”
Since then it has been quite a ride. Broadway shows like “They’re Playing Our Song” and “Lost In Yonkers,” as well as a string of movies, including “The Jazz Singer” with Neil Diamond. But you’re just as likely to find Lucie Arnaz in a touring show, singing in a nightclub or concert venue, or talking to eager audiences about the documentary she produced, “Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie.” In fact, Arnaz will host a screening of the documentary while she is here.
A versatile performer with an eye for a good role and a pragmatic attitude to her craft, Arnaz is the kind of artist who will take a shot at virtually any challenge that holds appeal.
“I take the parts that come along — I take the good parts, whatever they are,” she says. “It’s all basically the same to me. Even when I’m doing a nightclub act I have a show; and to me, when I’m singing the songs, those are little drama-comedies themselves too. So it’s either nightclubs, concerts, or it’s plays — whether it be musicals or straight plays— and sometimes I’m out giving speeches if I’m not doing that. But I don’t choose (a project) because I like one field better than the other. I just choose the lady that I’m supposed to be playing.”
The lady she is playing in “Master Class” was too tantalizing to resist. She sees the role of Maria Callas as a very meaty one; something she can really sink her teeth into. Arnaz has never played the part before and, when she talks about it, you can tell she’s warming to this latest challenge.
But despite all her talent, accomplishments and purist philosophies, does she find that people tend to focus more on the fact that she is Lucille Ball’s daughter than on the fact that she is Lucie Arnaz? Prodding journalists, for example.
“It depends on what show we’re talking about,” she says. “And it depends on how much homework they’ve done. If people are in a hurry and they just read a press release and they don’t know much about me, then they usually revert back to talking about my parents. If they’ve done their homework, then they talk about things that I’ve done. It depends on the individual.”
And then there’s the future. Where do you go when you’ve been everywhere? What do you shoot for when the whole gallery is yours?
“Next year I’m planning to tour with ‘Wonderful Town,’” she confides. “They did a revival of it in Los Angeles twice last year that I starred in. It’s a wonderful Roz Russell part from way long ago. And we now have the rights to bring this new production of it to New York next year should we choose to. So I believe in October I’ll be doing it for another month out in L.A., and then we may hit three or four other little theaters along the way, and then try to bring it in to Broadway. So that will be for next fall, in the year 2000, which is right around the corner!”
But first she’ll be coming to the Seacoast, courtesy of the good folk at the Rep. Which just goes to prove yet again that it doesn’t hurt to ask. Hey, even if it did, a little pain would be a small price to pay to have the likes of Lucie Arnaz in our midst, don’t you think?
.
From Spotlight, by Adrian Zupp, correspondent.
.
.
.