Rita Moreno calls herself an 84-year-old Energizer Bunny that keeps moving — and there’s plenty of truth to that statement.
Only one of 12 living performers who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, Moreno just completed taping of a new Norman Lear sitcom to premiere on Netflix in January. It’s a Hispanic version of the 1970s sitcom “One Day At A Time.”
Now she’s back traveling all over the country singing, lecturing and spreading a wealth of stories and positive messages about her storied career.
She’ll perform Oct. 2 at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.
Singer, dancer, actress, author, lecturer, Moreno has performed in countless Broadway and TV shows and movies and done character voice-overs, including that of Abuelita, in the children’s animated series “Nina’s World,” on NBC TV’s Sprout Network.
Her credits even include boxing the ears of Muppet’s crazy drummer, Animal, with a pair of cymbals.
“I was singing ‘Fever,'” she recalled. Animal was interrupting her with his obnoxious drumming skills, so she pounded him one.
“I still look at that now and again and laugh as hard as I did the first time.” said Moreno, a few days after completing taping the Lear project.
Moreno said she has always wanted to work with Lear.
She calls the 93-year-old producer of sitcoms such as “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “Maude” a “genius.”
In the Latino version of “One Day at a Time,” he’s set a new standard with doing a show about Latinos, Moreno said. “His head writer is Cuban. At least half the writers are Hispanic. It gives the show a marvelous tone that is authentically Latino. You have to see the show to understand that. There have been other shows on the air, even now, that are what I call stereotypes.” Over the years, she’s voiced her disapproval of casting Latinos in stereotypical roles.
Lear’s new sitcom “presents a Hispanic community that really exists,” she said. It’s funny, of course. “We laughed so hard. I wet my knickers more than once,” she said. But it’s also about real life, about issues related to family and money. There’s drama and comedy in the show, she said.
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In the show, Moreno portrays the grandmother of a newly single military mother raising her daughter and son.
Moreno was born in Puerto Rico. Her mother brought her to New York City, where she began taking dancing lessons. “‘When I was 5, I wanted to be a dancer,” she said.
Soon, she was not only dancing, but also singing and acting. She was cast as Zelda Zanders in “Singin’ in the Rain” and Anita in the film adaptation of “West Side Story,” for which she won an Academy Award.
Many more opportunities came her way, including appearing with Marlon Brando in “The Night of the Following Day,” with James Garner in “Marlowe,” and as Alan Arkin’s girlfriend in “Popi.”
She also released an all Spanish language album “Una Vez Mas,” produced by Emilio Estefan, and wrote “Rita Moreno: A Memoir,” which became a New York Times best-seller. In 2011, she premiered her one-woman show, “Life Without Makeup,” an original stage production about her life. In December 2015, she received the Kennedy Center Honor for her lifetime contributions to American culture.
She also takes seriously being a representative of minorities — and her lectures and talks are imbued with positive messages, she said.
“The solution in life is not to get discouraged, to keep focused on who you are — to not let go, not let anyone mess with your vision.”
“More often than not life is what you make it,” Moreno said. “And if you want it all, you’ve got to love it all.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
An Afternoon with Rita Moreno
When: 3 p.m. Oct. 2
Where: Arcada Theatre, 105 E. Main St., St. Charles
Tickets: $49-$89
Information: 630-962-7000; oshows.com