Rita Moreno Featured on 'Downstage Center,' 1/26

The American Theatre Wing and XM Satellite Radio will present an interview with stage and screen legend Rita Moreno on their weekly theatrical interview show, "Downstage Center," on XM's On Broadway (XM Channel 28).

 

Moreno will appear as the special guest on Friday, January 26 at 6 p.m. The show will repeat on Saturday, January 27 at noon, Sunday, January 28 at 7 p.m., and Wednesday, January 31 at midnight. 

 

In the interview, Moreno reflects on her career, from her Broadway debut at age 13; her efforts to break out of being constantly cast as a Latin spitfire; her arduous preparation for her audition for West Side Story; her experience working on the debut of Lorraine Hansberry's second Broadway play; her London appearances in She Loves Me and Sunset Boulevard; and how she came to find herself only five feet from Dr. Martin Luther King as he delivered his legendary "I Have A Dream" speech.
  

Moreno is one of a select group of performers to have won all four of the most prestigious show business awards: the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony, and the Grammy. She won the Oscar for her performance as Anita in the 1962 motion picture West Wide Story. The two Emmy's were for a 1977 variety appearance on "The Muppet Show" and a 1978 dramatic guest appearance on "The Rockford Files." The Tony was for her 1973 triumph on Broadway as Googie Gomez in The Ritz. The Grammy was for her 1972 performance on The Electric Company Album for children, which was based on the long-running television show of the same name.

 

Moreno made her Broadway debut at age 13 in Skydrift. From that point on, her career advanced steadily. She made thirty films in her early career, and went on to appear on Broadway in Gantry, appearing as the female lead opposite Robert Shaw, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The National Health (Tony Award nomination), Wally's Cafe, and the female version of The Odd Couple.

 

She has appeared in regional theatre in such diverse roles as Lola in Damn Yankees, Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker, Doris in The Owl and the Pussycat, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Mama Rose in Gypsy.

 

Each new "Downstage Center" is regularly broadcast at 6 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays at noon, Sundays at 7 p.m. and Wednesdays at 12 a.m. (all times EST). Following the initial run on XM, each program is made available for free, on-demand, internationally as both streaming audio and podcast on ATW's Web site, www.americantheatrewing.org.  Visit www.xmradio.com for more on XM Satellite Radio.