Rita Moreno is bringing more than seven decades of show business stories to the McCallum Theatre this Thursday, and she says nobody — including her — knows exactly where the conversation will go. The EGOT-winning actress and singer is set to appear in Palm Desert on November 5 at 7 p.m. for an event billed as “In Conversation With Rita Moreno,” with journalist and television personality Mo Rocca steering the discussion.
Moreno herself floated the idea of teaming up with Rocca again, according to NBC Palm Springs, which spoke with her about the upcoming appearance and her long career spanning film, television, theater and music. It will mark the second time the pair has shared a stage together, and Moreno is confident it'll click again. “we've done it once now onstage, and it's been a huge success,” she said, according to Coachella Valley Independent.
Don't expect a rehearsed Q&A. Moreno told the outlet her onstage chats are never scripted in advance. “It's not planned at all. My talks have never been planned,” she said. That looseness, she suggested, is part of what makes the format work — she simply lets the conversation wander wherever it goes, trusting that decades of stories will surface naturally.
Brando, Elvis, and Eight Decades of Anecdotes
If the night needs a spark, Moreno has plenty of material on hand. She told the Independent she can always lean on two of the biggest names in American entertainment history to get the room going: “there's always Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley to bring it up.” NBC Palm Springs reports she plans to share stories about performers she's encountered over a career now stretching more than 70 years, with Brando and Presley among them.
Moreno is also preparing for a milestone of her own. The Independent notes she is currently 94 and will turn 95 on December 11, a birthday that falls just over a month after her McCallum appearance. Few performers working today can claim a resume as deep as hers, and the Palm Desert date gives local audiences a rare chance to hear it recounted in her own unscripted words.
A Legacy Rooted in Reading, Not Just Stardom
Beyond the marquee moments with Hollywood icons, Moreno has said she takes particular pride in a quieter kind of impact: her work on The Electric Company, the children's program designed to teach reading through sketch comedy and animated shorts. According to NBC Palm Springs, she remains proud of the show's role in helping children develop literacy skills, and the series helped generations of young viewers learn to read.
That pride has data behind it. The Electric Company debuted on public television in October 1971, and NPR reported that a 1977 Educational Testing Service evaluation found the program had a clear and significant impact on its primary target audience — second graders who scored in the bottom half of their class. NPR's retrospective noted Moreno was among the show's cast members, alongside other performers who used comedy as a teaching tool rather than mere entertainment.
Getting to the McCallum
Tickets for Thursday's 7 p.m. show are available through the McCallum Theatre's website and box office, per NBC Palm Springs. For a Coachella Valley audience that has watched Moreno's career unfold across film, television, theater and music for decades, the evening promises an intimate, unrehearsed look back — with Rocca there simply to help steer the stories, not script them.
