A Russian Matriarch Gets Her Moment Onstage

On the first episode of "Russian Dolls," Eva Levitis sits at the head of a table, <a href="www.trading666.com"><strong>wholesale Cheap Replica Handbags from china </strong></a> prepping her pancake makeup for a beauty pageant. The pageant, for grandmothers only, is one she'll handily win – no one else tries for a belly dance routine that includes an eggplant-colored brassiere, dripping with beads. But that hasn't happened yet. She's still at home, her hair a nest of blond curls, speaking longingly into a make-up mirror: "I always dreamed to be onstage. And people was looking at me."Her English is stilted, charming. Don't blame her.An immigrant from a persecuted Jewish family in Moscow, a computer programmer in America and now a grandmother – Ms. Levitis, only 56, has waited long enough to swan onstage, to be seen. "Russian Dolls," which will have its premiere Thursday night on Lifetime, follows families in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach through their catfights, spa days and dating disasters in what producers bill as a docu-drama slice of the immigrant experience and critics dub a Russian "Jersey Shore."Though the pilot can feel kooky and staged, with conversations as forced as the worst of "reality," Ms. Levitis's open avowal of her love of performance and emotional cracks feel honest. Though she wins the pageant's "Best Talent" award, her family isn't there to see it – they leave early, bored. That hurts. "I was very embarrassed that they left early," she says, cow-eyed, at the camera. "Actually, that broke my heart." Moon-faced and Snooki-ly petite, Ms. Levitis is the matriarch of the clan known in Brighton for owning the nightclub Rasputin, where you can suck on lobster while witnessing a Las Vegas-style Russophone cabaret show. In political circles, she's known as the mother of Michael Levitis, <a href="http://www.trading666.com/UGG-snow-boots-5815-f2-72-c3-140.html"><strong>wholesale cheap ugg 5815 online from china </strong></a> a Brighton Beach lawyer who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in the bribery scandal that ensnared his friend State Senator Carl Kruger.Ms. Levitis does her son's bookkeeping, but to speak of his criminal case, she said, was "too difficult." The threat of Mr. Levitis's imprisonment reminded her of her father's seven-year term in a Siberian work camp.Last Saturday, off camera, Ms. Levitis sat in the moody dark of her own restaurant, in a cocktail dress of magenta silk and bronze platform heels, with a little golden purse. <a href="http://www.trading666.com/sport-jerseys-NFL-jerseys-f2-45.html"><strong>cheap NFL jerseys from china</strong></a> She spoke of family."Different generations can't understand each other," she said. "When you get older you can understand. I just now understand my mother and father."Ms. Levitis's father was the head chef of a French restaurant in Moscow; his parents had been imprisoned by Stalin.Her childhood was strict, traditional. At 5 years old, she was nearly kidnapped. "After this the gates were closed," she recalled. She wasn't allowed to date. A matchmaker set her up with her husband.When she was a young woman, her father was accused of donating resources to a Jewish school and was imprisoned in Siberia. After his release, the family immigrated to America, where they lived, at first, on welfare. Ms. Levitis's husband, a dentist, studied for his license. She took classes in computer programming and climbed up corporate ladders.In 1999, her husband left her for his secretary. "He left me for a younger woman," Ms. Levitis recalled. "I thought ‘Oh, I'm not good enough.'" She got through it by taking belly dancing classes – "the dance of single women," she calls it, letting the feeling pulse through her quickly — a quick shimmy of the shoulders, a toss of the head.Later episodes of <a href="http://megaoi.fb5.ru/displayimage.php?pos=-1"><strong>Has Danaher Corp. (up 4.61 percent, DHR) seen the light?</strong></a> the show portray Ms. Levitis on dates with eligible bachelors, one of whom is 35. "I'm looking for the ######ual relationship," Ms. Levitis tells her daughter-in-law.For Ms. Levitis, dating on camera was an attempt to take the shock value out of what she was doing. "I want to show my generation of women, divorce is not the end of life,” she said. “There is a life. You can dance, sing, date. You have to live your life again."Performing is her therapy. As a programmer at a financial firm, she would count the days until the office party broke out the karaoke machine. "I always sang ‘America the Beautiful,'" she said. "You can't sing anything, you know, romantic, because it's an office. And I love America."At Rasputin last weekend, Ms. Levitis danced alone on the crowded floor. The band played "We No Speak Americano" and she hopped up and down. Then they played "Let the Sunshine In." Ms. Levitis closed her eyes and sang along.