Pia Zadora back onstage, singing standards at The Smith Center

So much for Pia Zadora's days as PTA president.

After an extended run in the demanding role of mother, Zadora gets back to where she once belonged: onstage, in the spotlight, singing her heart out.

Zadora makes her Smith Center debut at Cabaret Jazz tonight and Saturday, marking her return to the role of Vegas headliner.

And it's the first time she's been a Vegas performer - and a Vegas resident - at the same time.

In the past, Las Vegas "always was my home away from home - my stomping ground," she says, settling into a chair at her Summerlin home, which comes complete with a view of the Strip in the distance. "But I never really lived here."

Not until 2010, that is, when Zadora and her third husband, Las Vegas police officer Michael Jeffries, moved here from Los Angeles.

"At first, I had mixed feelings," Zadora says about the move. "It was change - and any change is really scary."

But then, she reasoned, "OK, I'm going back home - back to my roots."

Offstage, Zadora "reconnected with people I had known." She served as PTA president at her 15-year-old son Jordan's school and performed at benefits. (Zadora's two children with ex-husband, and ex-Riviera owner, Meshulam Riklis are all grown up: Daughter Kady is also a singer; son Kristofer has a business degree but is currently serving a tour of duty in the Israeli army.)

Onstage, Zadora also has returned to her roots, resuming the performing career that began when she was 7; her early roles ranged from the original Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" (where she played Tevye's youngest daughter, Bielke ) to the 1964 movie "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians."

During an interview, Zadora expresses astonishment at the mere mention of the latter, but cheerfully launches into the opening lines of "Hooray for Santy Claus," the song she sang in the cult holiday favorite.

These days, Zadora is singing a different tune - the kind her musical mentor, a guy named Frank Sinatra, suggested to her when she worked as his opening act.

"It's recycling," Zadora says of her current musical repertoire, which features the same Broadway, movie and pop standards Sinatra himself used to sing.

The Sinatra connection extends to Zadora's accompanist at this weekend's Cabaret Jazz gig: pianist and conductor Vinnie Falcone .

"I used to say, 'I stole him away' " from Sinatra, Zadora notes, joking, "I'm Polish - I made him an offer he couldn't understand."

But seriously, folks, Zadora considers Falcone "like part of my family."

Among the tunes she's planning to feature in this weekend's Cabaret Jazz show: such "beautiful torch songs" as "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Our Love Is Here to Stay," "Where or When" and "Maybe This Time."

As Zadora admits, "I didn't understand them the way I do now, after just going through life."

Singing them now gives her the chance "to be able to tell the story of my life, weaving the thread of my life and telling my story" in song, she explains.

But it's not just her story, Zadora maintains.

The songs "tell a story everyone can relate to, if they've lived life," she comments. "They speak to the pain and joy and the trials and tribulations and challenges of life."

And when it comes to trials and tribulations and challenges, Zadora knows the territory.

After all, she's had her share - especially after she won a "New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture" Golden Globe award for the campy "Butterfly," which was financed by her then-husband, Riklis. (Her competition that year included "Ragtime's" Elizabeth McGovern and "Body Heat's" Kathleen Turner.)

The resulting controversy "made for great copy," Zadora acknowledges. "I understand why Hollywood got all bent out of shape."

That attitude also filtered through when Zadora received a Grammy nomination for 1984's "Rock It Out."

As then-Los Angeles Times rock critic Robert Hilburn wrote at the time, "I resisted the temptation to join in the snickering ... when Pia Zadora picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal. I wanted to actually listen to the showbiz curio's record before I snickered."

After Hilburn heard it, he added that "the real surprise in all this, however, is that Zadora's vocal on 'Rock It Out' turned out to be more effective than two of the other female rock nominees."

Zadora lost the Grammy to Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It" - no disgrace there - but being branded a "showbiz curio," to use Hilburn's dismissive phrase, meant Zadora "had a choice" in what to do next.

"I could go home with my tail between my legs," she says, or "take advantage of the visibility and disprove the cynics."

Her decision to go "back to my roots" - singing the standards - ultimately "saved my ass," Zadora admits. "It gave me the credibility I needed."

Especially because "people weren't expecting it." And when "Sinatra came along to be my mentor," she notes, "it gave me the 'Good Housekeeping' seal of approval."

Ultimately, "it all worked out," Zadora says philosophically, "in a very strange kind of way. I had to go through all that to get back."

Now that she's back on the cabaret circuit (Smith Center president Myron Martin caught her act at San Francisco's Rrazz Room and booked her at Cabaret Jazz), Zadora hopes to stay there.

In New York, perhaps, but especially in Las Vegas.

"I'm not crazy about traveling," she says. "I want to focus attention on doing what I do here. This is my backyard."

Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.