The party is not over

Jennifer K Mahal

Polly Bergen still thinks about the indelible moment she stepped

on stage to sing for the first time in 35 years. The one-night

charity performance of “Company” in Florida proved that she belonged

back in the spotlight, crooning.

“I can only tell you that the light from the stage touched my toe

as I made my entrance, and it was like I had never been gone,” Bergen

said. “The joy it brought me, the sense of complete fulfillment.”

In the two years since, the 72-year-old with the heartbreak voice

has earned rave reviews for her nightclub act, a Tony nomination for

playing Carlotta in the revival of “Follies” and has just come off

doing eight shows a week at Studio 54 as Fraulein Schneider in

“Cabaret.” This week she will open the Orange County Performing Arts

Center’s 2002-03 Elvin and Marjorie Shane Klein Cabaret series. It

will be her first time performing in Costa Mesa.

“Who thought so much could happen so fast, and so late in my

life?” Bergen said.

Bergen’s been married three times, made and lost a fortune,

succeeded in the cosmetics industry, sold things on the Home Shopping

Network, had her own variety show, made hit records, won an Emmy,

raised three children and, as the song from “Follies” goes, is still

here.

“She does a show every night on Broadway and is not tired,” voice

coach Trish McCaffrey said. “That’s a huge feat for a 20-year-old.

She demands a lot of herself, and it’s paid off.”

In her teens, Bergen was discovered by producer Hal Wallis and

made a string of films, including “Across the Rio Grande” and

“Warpath.” She played opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in “At War

With the Army,” The Stooge” and “That’s My Boy.”

Her career got a boost in the late 1950s when she won an Emmy for

her Playhouse 90 portrayal of Helen Morgan, an alcoholic torch singer

who died in her 40s. In 1962, she played opposite Gregory Peck in

“Cape Fear.”

Bergen had a number of best-selling albums before deciding in 1965

that, like her signature song by Jule Styne, the party was over -- at

least for her singing career. She said her second marriage, to

Hollywood agent Freddie Fields, had something to do with why she

stopped the music.

“An awful lot of the men and women he handled really dealt with

very difficult emotional problems -- keeping the family together,

drinking,” she remembers. “I was so exposed to it, almost over

exposed, that I was really terrified that I would arrive at that

moment when I was no longer a young, pretty leading woman, and would

I fall into the same trap?”

Instead, Bergen made the decision to walk away from public

singing. On the acting side, she went on to earn Emmy nominations as

best supporting actress for “The Winds of War” and “War and

Remembrance.”

It was a hard choice.

“I spent 35 years watching other people do material I wanted to

do,” Bergen said. “Sometimes when you can do more than one thing, it

can be a handicap. It’s wonderful because you can go from one thing

to another and always do well, but it can allow you to make decisions

you regret later in life.”

In a way, no longer singing may have saved Bergen’s voice. Until

about three years ago, she was a heavy smoker.

“I was so addicted that the idea of giving up smoking to not have

vocal problems, it was difficult for me to do,” she said.

It took severe smoking-related ailments -- she had leg surgery for

circulation problems -- for the addict to finally give up her habit.

It was not the concept of death that scared Bergen off cigarettes, it

was the idea of living as a cripple with an oxygen tank by her side.

“It gave me a whole new look at smoking,” she said. “ The next

morning I woke up and I have never had another cigarette.”

She still has the craving, though. “It is something I want to do

every day of my life.”

Bergen decided to explore singing again and approached McCaffrey

for lessons. The singer didn’t want to perform again professionally

unless she could sing at least 80% of the way she used to.

“She didn’t know if she’d ever get that back,” said McCaffrey,

whose parents played Bergen’s records when she was a child. “I had

heard her voice my whole life, so I knew what voice to go find. I

just knew I could bring that voice back.”

And together, they did.

The material in Bergen’s act is culled from a lifetime of songs,

both old and new. She said songs need to resonate with her before she

can perform. With the help of director Richard J. Alexander, who has

also worked with Bernadette Peters, Bergen created a performance she

said is “a one-woman show without being a one-woman show,” filled

with comedy and drama.

“I didn’t want to do a nostalgic program of this is an old lady

singing old songs,” the septuagenarian said.

The only boundaries, Bergen said, are the ones we create

ourselves.