Liza's Show For the Las Vegas Gypsies.....And The Rest of the USA

If you live in Las Vegas and want Broadway, just get tickets to Jersey Boys or The Lion King. If you want to see Broadway better than it is on Broadway, you can see Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular. For the "only in Las Vegas" type of show, there are any of the five Cirque du Soleil productions.

But Friday morning there was something special. For, at 12:15 a.m., Liza Minnelli not only brought her Tony-winning Liza's At the Palace! to Las Vegas, but she did it in a special show for Las Vegas gypsies and — lucky us who will get to relive it and you who will get to share it — it was recorded for the PBS Pledge Week in December.

First a note about the venue. I've been to the Hollywood Theatre at the MGM Grand more times than I can count. With 746 seats, it is a singular and very nice contrast to the 1,000+ seats in the theaters and arenas usually available for Strip headliners in this town. Over the years this gem of a theater has served as home to produciton shows like FX in the 90s. Because of its size, the audience is thisclose to the performer and that in itself is unusual. These days, one can regularly see a mixed bag of music and comedy there. The most frequent headliners are Tom Jones, David Copperfield, Howie Mandel and Rodney Carrington. Lily Tomlin is playing next month for the first time and — also for the first time there — Liza Minnelli just completed her run. With the exception of Copperfield's show (because it requires special equipment for the illusions) the stage is mostly bare bones with any musicians on simple risers.

For Liza, the theater was really spruced up with what looked like a spiffy new gray curtain with red panels hanging across the top and at the sides and very Broadway-like set pieces and lighting. The audience was decorated with the requisite celebrities such an occasion demands, including Barry Manilow, Renée Zellweger, Alan Cumming and Kathy Griffin.

Director Matthew Diamond spoke to the audience before the show started, explaining that he may "using the voice of God mic" ask for bits to be redone and instructing the audience how to respond. So, we in the audience had to rehearse, first, laughs: titter, chuckle, guffaw and belly laugh. We also rehearsed applause, from a polite smattering to a standing o.

Then, with a few notes of New York, New York playing, Liza walked onstage. Shimmerng in white-sequinned Halston — everything she wore,  I was told, is vintage Halston — she began with the 1950s hit Teach Me Tonight and moved right into I Would Never Leave You Alone.

Noting that "I've been particularly drawn to songs about falling in love — although lately to songs about falling out of love" — she moved quickly into If, the wonderful Comden and Green song from Two On the Aisle. Things got serious, thoughtful and beautiful when she performed Charles Aznavour's ever-so-moving 35 year-old song, What Makes A Man A Man?

Act I was sprinkled with Kander and Ebb work — The World Goes Round (from New York New York), Maybe This Time (Cabaret) and I Am My Own Best Friend (Chicago). After the latter song, she introduced her musical director/pianist Billy Stritch who led her 11-piece orchestra.

Up to this point, Liza was all charm, talent and exuded show-biz. If one doubted that, she did a bang-up job on a song that could be a show biz anthem  — expecially moving when performed by Liza Minnelli with her show biz pedigree — the Palace medley Roger Edens put together for Judy Garland. Act I closed with Cabaret, one of the songs the audience was waiting to hear.

The second act saw Liza back onstage in black-velvet-lined-with-red. She sang a bit and then "introduced" Kay Thompson, the godmother who was clearly one of the most influential and steadying forces in her life. That Thompson was also a skilled performer and author of the story of Eloise simply added to her influence on Minnelli. Thompson clearly loved her goddaughter like she was her own child and that love was returned in full measure. Minnelli described her as "a life force; a true Renaissance woman" who was one of the most powerful people in entertainment in the 30s, 40s and 50s.

Recreating Thompson's nightclub act with the Williams Brothers (charmingly portrayed by Cortes Alexander, Jim Caruso, Tiger Martina and Johnny Rodgers) Minnelli disappeard for a few moments as they sang and came back onstage is a short, short black sequin dress, black stockings and knee-high suede boots. (She still has terrific legs.) A highlight was Clap Yo' Hands from the film Funny Face.

Before leaving the topic of godparents, she noted that her godfather was Ira Gershwin and sang his song, Liza.

For the final segment of the show Minnelli, dressed in a diaphonous, flowing orange pantsuit, began with "a special request from my brother Joe, who is here tonight." The request was Mammy. Words cannot describe how special that was. I was surronded by people who, recognizing the significance of the song and the sheer privilege of being in that room at that moment, were quietly weeping.

The last song on the set list was, of course, New York, New York and, as expected, she killed it.

No one in that audience needed the pre-show coaching about how to laugh and applaud. It was all heartfelt and genuine. She's one of a kind and is to be cherished. Even if the voice isn't what it was; even if the star had to sit for a few numbers, the audience loved their Liza and were grateful that she clearly and unreservedly loved them right back.

So it ended — but not quite. With Billy Stritch the only other person on the stage, she came back and sat on the piano bench and sang a lovely and quite unexpected last number — Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. Since this show will be on PBS in December, we surely will have merry Christmases (or whatever we celebrate). And everyone in that audience likely wished the same for her.

To post a comment, you must register and login.