Rita Moreno pays homage with Little Tributes to big names at the Rrazz Room
By Bruce Bellingham

The irrepressible Rita Moreno, who has won every award under the sun – an Oscar, the Tony, the Emmy, the Grammy, and the Golden Globe (she’s still holding out for the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prizes, but it’s early yet) – appears at the Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko from Nov. 5–23.

She’s dedicating the shows to the composers of the Great American Songbook. They include Harold Arlen, the Gershwins and other giants.

One would think that Rita, who dazzled the world years ago in the film version of West Side Story, would have crossed paths with a lot of these legendary composers.
But, in a phone interview with the Northside San Francisco, we learned that it ain’t necessarily so. In fact, she never met any of them.

“I would have done anything to have met Andrew Lloyd Webber,” says Moreno, “but I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t meet any of the big names that I include in Little Tributes.”
Moreno is including a lesser-known number from Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. She played Norma Desmond for three months in London a few years back.

“It’s a wonderful, electrifying piece of music. There’s no filler in the show. I picked the songs carefully for their impact.”

For decades, Moreno and her husband have been Bay Area residents. These days she also teaches at the University of Nevada and continues her acting gigs on television. One of the most rewarding experiences was appearing on three consecutive episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

The star of the show, Vincent D’Onofrio, came to her last Rrazz Room show.
“Vince asked me how I approached the performance of a song,“ remarks Moreno. “I was amazed. He’s such a good actor. I thought it was obvious that singing a song is just another form of acting.”

Having a voice like Rita Moreno’s surely helps.
Rita Moreno in Little Tributes: The Rrazz Room in the Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street (at O’Farrell); Nov. 5–23, Mon–Sat 8 p.m. & Sundays 5 p.m.; tickets $50–$55 at 866-468-3399 or www.therrazzroom.com