No Blake, but still plenty to fight about

CHICAGO -- It is something of a minor miracle that Joan Collins and Linda Evans are here at the same hotel, let alone sharing the stage for 30 weeks in a revival of the 1986 comedy "Legends!"

Truth be told, Collins did not want Evans to star opposite her in the show. And Evans had no intention of ever stepping on a stage. But before your imagination cuts to a delicious Aaron Spelling-choreographed scene of Collins shoving Evans's perfectly parted blond head into a punch bowl, or Evans grabbing Collins by the sequined shoulder pads and tossing her over the banister of a grand staircase, please allow Collins set the record straight.

"To be perfectly honest with you," she says. "When they first suggested Linda, I said 'I don't think that's a good idea because people are going to think we're trying to cash in on "Dynasty." ' I, quite frankly, was very much against it because I didn't want to be cashing in on 'Dynasty.' "

Yet here she sits in a suite on the 30th floor of the Ritz-Carlton, with Lake Michigan, which is the same shade of pale blue as her eyes, stretched out behind her.

"Our producer, Ben Sprecher, was adamant," she explains. "And now we have this situation where it is now cashing in on 'Dynasty,' which was not my original intention at all."

Fans of "Dynasty," the prime-time soap that ran on ABC from 1981 to 1989, most likely will not complain about the fact that Collins, 73, and Evans, 64, are again paired as bitter rivals. On the bigger-than-life "Dynasty," Collins was the scenery-chewing, man-eating Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan , the socialite-turned-business woman who made life miserable for Linda Evans's demure Krystle Carrington.

"Legends!," which was penned by the late James Kirkwood (librettist for "A Chorus Line"), is a "Dynasty"-esque comedy that was originally -- and notoriously -- created as a vehicle for Carol Channing and Mary Martin in the mid-1980s. Kirkwood told toe-curling tales of working with Channing and Martin in his 1989 book "Diary of a Mad Playwright." Martin couldn't remember her lines, and critics unanimously panned the show.

In the current production, Collins plays the role of venomous faded film star Sylvia Glenn, while Evans is the sweet, but also faded, Leatrice Monsee . The two characters are brought together for a theatrical comeback that they both need, although neither wants to work with the other. Cue the wig-pulling and age jokes.

"The thing that really made it wonderful with this is that we wouldn't have to work on stage to convince them that we're rivals," says Evans. "There's such a built-in history. We just walk on stage, and people assume that we don't like each other."

Which naturally raises the question, are Evans and Collins friends off stage? Do they hang out, get their nails done, and dish about Sammy Jo's turbulent love life? The answer is as different as the actresses themselves. Evans, diplomatic and sunny, attributes their limited off-stage interactions to the grind of performing on the road.

"For the first 10 to 12 weeks I didn't even go out to dinner," she says. "I came home, I looked at my script, I did interviews. I hardly went anywhere."

Collins, who is honest to a fault, puts it this way:

"It's a matter of Linda and I being completely different people. We don't have any similar interests in any way. The professional relationship is good. We don't really have a lot in common as to make ourselves friends. You rarely become friends with anyone you work with. You're really just ships that pass in the night."

Collins was the first of the two actresses attached to "Legends!," choosing the play because she was looking for a stage comedy. Several actresses were considered for the part of her sparring partner, however Evans was not one of them.

"I never thought of her," says Collins. "She had never done theater before."

Evans, who is semi retired from acting, says she was also not interested. But Nolan Miller, a close friend, clothing designer for "Dynasty," and also costumer for "Legends!," persisted and asked her to read the script. She intended to say no, but read the play and loved it. With no previous stage experience, she said yes and went into rehearsals in New York.

"I nearly had a nervous breakdown because I realized this was so much to learn so fast," she says. "I'm just lucky that Barbara Stanwyck was my mentor on [the 1960s TV show] 'The Big Valley.' She'd tell me to show up, learn my lines, and be a professional, and it has served me well. I struggled for months because I wanted so badly to rise to the occasion on stage."

Collins is correct when she obverses that the two have little in common. She started in theater at age 9, while Evans was so shy as a child that she refused to give a junior high book report. In their separate interviews, Evans is subtly attired in a gray Miller suit, while Collins wears a three-quarter length skirt with a revealing slit that travels up her leg and offers a healthy tease of thigh. Collins has done little to slow down since the end of "Dynasty." She's penned 13 books ("Haven't you read them?" she asks, somewhat incredulously), acted on stage, and she shows up regularly on television. Evans has done some television, but in recent years has spent time talking with women's groups about aging and self-esteem.

Despite those differences, both actresses seem quite comfortable resuming characters that resemble their 1980s diva alter egos. Although true to form, Collins is a bit more realistic about why she's here.

"You take the jobs that are offered," she says, as husband Percy Gibson listens in. "You do what you can. We cannot all be Nicole Kidman, or Judi Dench, or Meryl Streep. I consider myself to be a character actress. I hate the word star. When people say 'Oh, you're an icon, or a legend,' I find it embarrassing. That's the way I am.

"I have not been escaping from Alexis, but I feel like Alexis was something that I was saddled with," she continues. "It has done me a lot of good, so I'll go along with that. But, sorry to disappoint you, I'm not Alexis."

Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com.