Now starring in Alhambra's 'Social Security,' Barbara Eden talks of 'I Dream of Jeannie'

Barbara Eden spent five television seasons playing Jeannie, the bare-midriffed genie who was a figure of fantasy for many a teenage boy.

The show "I Dream of Jeannie," which ran on NBC from 1965-70, was not a prime-time hit, never finishing in the top 25 of the Neilsen ratings. But, like many an abandoned sitcom, it found new life and a wider audience in syndication.

Eden, who is in Jacksonville to perform in the Alhambra Theatre & Dining's production of the comedy "Social Security," says that for many years she was unaware of the show's growing cult status.

"Even when I was working on the show, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to it," Eden said. "I was doing Las Vegas, doing regional theater."

That's changed. She now makes regular visits to fan events and has fond memories of accompanying her old "master," the late Larry Hagman, who played astronaut Tony Nelson on the show, on trips to fan conventions in Australia and Germany.

"She's pervasive," Eden said of her old character. "But it's just in the last 10 or 15 years that I've realized she was still there."

Eden said she's glad to have the opportunity to do those fan events and glad that there is still interest in her as an actor.

"I like to work," Eden said. "I'm really lucky to have a job I enjoy."

So when the Alhambra contacted her about playing the role of Sophie in "Social Security," which opened on Broadway in 1986 and ran for 388 performances, she was game.

She had played the role in 2012 at Kansas City's New Theater, receiving a glowing review from Examiner.com:

"She still has the same lilting laugh, the same impish grin, and the same spot-on comedic timing that she had all those years ago when she was a magical young genie who lived in a bottle."

Her character Sophie is a bit of an eccentric living off and on with two married daughters.

"Both daughters consider her a burden," Eden said.

In the first act, the couple with whom she's been living on Long Island deposit her with the other couple, trendy Manhattan art gallery owners Barbara and David Kahn.

Eden said she was drawn to the play by the chance to be Sophie.

"It's something I've never done," she said. "She's a character but a real one."

And she said she's glad to have played Sophie before because rehearsal time at the Alhambra is relatively brief and she makes it a point to begin rehearsals with her lines memorized.

"It's scary to me not to know your lines," she said.

Not that the show, as directed by Tod Booth, will be a replica of the show she did in Kansas City.

"He's a different director with a different approach," she said. "Working with Tod has been fabulous."

Charlie Patton: (904) 359-4413