By Gregg Shapiro

Contributing writer

Following sold out, record-breaking runs in San Francisco and Los Angeles, singer and actress Lynda Carter brings her critically acclaimed cabaret act, “An Intimate Evening with Lynda Carter,” to Chicago for a limited time. A show business veteran of more than 30 years, Carter, who to this day is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the mid-1970s television series of the same name, returns to live performance after some 20 years.

Gregg Shapiro: The question that is most likely on everybody’s minds is what made you want to return to live performance?

Lynda Carter: It actually was sort of a part of a journey, I think. It wasn’t really an epiphany as much as it was that I decided to do “Chicago,” the musical, in London a couple of years ago. I thought, “If I ever want to sing again, this is perfect. I do two songs—now, they’re rangy songs—and see how it feels.” And I really loved it. I really did. Then I got a call from Scott Stander who tells me he’s been after me for 10 years (laughs) to go back to singing. But I had kids that were small and I’d done so much of the road already, I knew that that wasn’t going to work out very well for them. As it turns out, my son is starting his second year of college and my daughter is a junior in high school. It’s a lot like the way my life has gone. All the stars were in alignment or whatever—it was the right time. I really had put it out there—I had a desire to sing again, I just didn’t know how I was going to go about doing that. To put an act together takes a lot of work. Putting an act together that is this size took less work than a bigger act with more bells and whistles. But putting an act together that is this size is putting yourself on the line, absolute, bare bones, no fooling around, you better sing your ass off (laughs).

GS: Because there is a certain degree of intimacy where cabaret performance is concerned.

LC: Right. Exactly! There’s no background singers, no fancy lights, just some great musicians and that’s kind of the way it goes.

GS: If I’m not mistaken, you did some country music in the 1970s.

LC: Yeah, I did. You’d have to know what was going on musically at the time not to think that this was just totally a stab at pop. “Portrait” was, what I thought as I listened to it, there were some really nice songs on there. But I thought that basically the whole thing was very safe and very pop. But it was the time, too, the late ’70s. There wasn’t much of a real statement on it that was tremendously personal, except for the songs that I wrote. The songs I wrote were probably the ones that I liked the best.

GS: You are in the process of putting together a forthcoming CD. Will there be original tunes on that one?

LC: Well, we’re kind of throwing around whether I want to resurrect anything from that previous album. I get a lot of requests for one song in particular called “Toto.” I was just thinking about maybe rethinking that. Basically, I wanted to get the music I’m doing now down onto a CD. It’s pretty much what I’m singing in my act. I may leave a few of them off, because I think they’re more performance oriented. But I’m going to get them all down anyway and make up my mind later. As I walked into the studio with these musicians—I had worked with so many of these guys on my (TV) specials and various things, it was wonderful to see them again. They’re still the best musicians in town. That’s kind of where that’s at.

GS: I’m so glad that you mentioned your TV specials, because the days of the network variety specials appear to be a thing of the past, but as someone who hosted and performed on her own award-winning specials, do you think they stand a chance of making a comeback?

LC: Don’t forget, my love, that they are alive and well on MTV. There wasn’t MTV when I was doing these specials. What I did in my specials was sort of doing the songs as a mini-play or something. It wasn’t just a concert. And that’s what music videos do now. They tell a story, and I was doing that in the ’70s. I think it is still happening—you just have to turn on MTV to see it.

GS: As an actress, you have played many more characters than just Wonder Woman, and yet it is the role with which you are most closely identified. Did it ever cause you much bother or did you just learn to go with the flow and accept it?

LC: I would say that I had a lot of people telling me that it should bother me. But as I’ve done in so many ways in my past, I didn’t listen (laughs). I realized very early on that this character was larger than life. It wasn’t forgettable—it could have been forgettable! I have no choices in it and the only thing I do have a choice in is whether I’m happy about it or not. I choose to be happy about it.

GS: Of acting and singing, which gives you the most satisfaction?

LC: I’ve been asked that question and it’s an impossible question to answer, because it is a creative experience. You’ll see a lot of creative people also be creative in other ways. It’s the way that the brain is wired. I think that there is the immediate rush of live performance that you can’t get in other ways. It can’t be touched in other ways, it can’t be messed with, you have total control because it’s a live performance. What is done on the stage—you don’t have an editor or someone cutting out a scene (laughs). Part of the lure of it is that you sink or swim—it’s all your own and it’s also the scary part. That doesn’t take away from film. You have to be tremendously focused.

GS: You mentioned the play “Chicago,” in which you played Mama Morton in a London production and also performed at the 10th anniversary celebration of “Chicago” on Broadway. Now, you are coming to the city of Chicago to perform at the Apollo Theater. Have you ever been here before?

LC: I’ve been to Chicago. Rush Street, right?

GS: Right!

LC: I played Chicago when I was probably 19 years old. I don’t remember the name of the club. I don’t remember which group I was with. I had a friend who was living in Chicago—the drummer—and it’s when I first started getting an education on jazz and all of that. But being an Arizona girl, I had no comprehension of how cold the lake factor (could make it). I had no idea.

GS: Is there anything in terms of performance or entertainment that you haven’t yet done that you would love to have the opportunity to do—say, for example, to host a talk show or game show or do a sitcom?

LC: Not a game show and not a reality show and I don’t think a talk show…maybe. I think I’d like to do some comedy. I think I’ve always been gifted in comedy. Comedy would be great.

GS: Are you aware of a following within the LGBT community?

LC: Oh, yes, of course I am. There was a time when I wasn’t. My heroine of live performance/acting crossover queen is Bette Midler. I thought if I could ever have a career like that or if I would ever have a following in the gay and lesbian community I will know that I have arrived, that I have achieved real success (laughs).

An Intimate Evening with Lynda Carter runs Sept. 11–16 at the Apollo Theatre, 2540 N. Lincoln. Call (773) 935-6100.