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Kaye Ballard

COMEDY LEGEND RETURNS TO PLAZA THEATRE

LOCAL FAVORITE KAYE BALLARD CELEBRATES 70 YEARS IN SHOW BUSINESS

To anyone who watched television in the mid-20th century, Follies guest star Kaye Ballard, 82, is a musical-comedy legend, thanks to her hilarious appearances on The Tonight Show, The Carol Burnett Show and other variety hours, and her own, now-classic sitcom, The Mothers-in-Law, co-starring Eve Arden. She also created the role of one of the stepsisters in the original broadcast of Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella. But TV is only one medium in which Ballard has triumphed during her 70 years in show business!

Making her stage debut at age 12 in her native Cleveland, Ballard played vaudeville and burlesque during the closing years of those circuits. In 1943, she was "discovered" by bandleader Spike Jones and toured with his band, singing and playing flute and tuba.

After debuting on Broadway with Three to Make Ready in 1946, Ballard returned for 1954's The Golden Apple, reinventing Helen of Troy as a small-town girl who is "always willing," and introducing the ballad standard, "Lazy Afternoon." She later starred in the hit Broadway musical Carnival! (next to past and future Follies' guest star, Anna Maria Alberghetti), and the 1980s' revival of The Pirates of Penzance.

Hollywood beckoned in 1957 and Ballard made her film debut with Jane Powell in The Girl Most Likely. Numerous movies followed, including Which Way to the Front?,  the original Freaky Friday, A House Is Not A Home and, her personal favorite, The Ritz.

In recent years, Ballard returned to the stage for celebrated revivals of Funny Girl and Stephen Sondheim's Follies, and the 20th anniversary tour of Nunsense. She continues to make recordings and nightclub appearances, and has published the riotous autobiography: How I Lost 10 Pounds in 53 Years.

Like the Palm Springs Follies itself, Kaye Ballard is living proof that classic musical-comedy talent still beguiles audiences. Her current run at the historic Plaza Theatre is a "homecoming" in every sense of the word: a return to her vaudeville roots; a revisiting of her smash Follies debut in Season 14; and a rare, local engagement near her adopted hometown of Rancho Mirage.