Minnelli to Guest on 'ROSIE LIVE!', Krakowski, Griffin and Morisette Among Announced Lineup

Rosie O'Donnell is returning to television and reviving the variety genre with her "Rosie Live" Variety Show. TVWeek.com has revealed that O'Donnell has reached out to Tony, Grammy, Oscar and Emmy Award winner Liza Minnelli guest star on the upcoming television variety show, "Rosie Live".

Liza Minnelli, who is making her return to Broadway in December in a limited run of Liza's at the Palace . . .!    

The special will air live from the Little Shubert Theater, in New York, the night before Thanksgiving, November 26, at 8pm and is believed to be the kickoff for a 2009 regular series.

In the wide ranging interview with TVWeek.com Rosie excitedly reveals some of her plans for the variety hour, "Liza Minnelli will be on the show," she continues "It's showbiz royalty. I couldn't do it without her." 

When asked if O'Donnell would perform a duet with Ms. Minnelli, whose 1972 variety/concert special "Liza With a Z" won multiple Emmy Awards, she answered quickly with a laugh, "Of course! What, are you kidding me?" This is the dream for every girl from Long Island who ever sang in the mirror to ‘Cabaret.' This is as good as it gets for me." 

Ms. O'Donnell is keeping specifics of the musical number under wraps for now, though she hinted that Ms. Minnelli will sing "a song you haven't heard her perform in over 30 years."

"Rosie Live" and variety-show projects in the works at Fox and CBS represent the most ambitious attempts to bring back the genre in 20 years.

With standard-issue competition-based reality shows proving tougher to launch these days, networks are hoping variety shows might provide the same sort of scheduling sizzle that series such as "American Idol" offer explained the webiste.

Television Week is also reporting that amongst other guests on the show that Rosie has chosen Kathy Griffin, Jane Krakowski, Alanis Morisette, NeYo and more.  

The show, which is said to be modeled after popular traditional variety shows like Carol Burnett, Ed Sullivan and Sonny & Cher will include "celebrity guests, musical acts, comedy skits and more." David Friedman is the Executive Producer, along with O'Donnell. 

"Rosie Live!" will air live on the East Coast at 8 p.m.-with the standard 5-second delay-and will originate from the Little Shubert Theater onManhattan's 42nd Street. Doing the hour live rather than on tape was "something I insisted on," details O'Donnell. 

"I wanted to have that feeling of, ‘You don't know what's going to happen, you don't know what she's gonna say,'" she explained to TVWeek. "I wanted it to be like a Broadway show ... where you know and 600 people know you're going to go on this amazing ride." 

Other features borrowed from Broadway include a 20-piece live orchestra and a comedy sketch based on characters from the Tony-winning musical "Urinetown."

Rosie O'Donnell is a 13-time Emmy Award-winning American comedienne, talk show host, television personality, celebrity blogger, gay rights activist, film, television, and stage actress. She has appeared on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof and Seussical! 

 

She also produced Taboo. Rosie O'Donnell is an often-advocate for New York theatre, featuring Broadway performances on her Emmy Award-winning talk-show "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," which ran 1996 to 2001. She was last seen as a co-host on the tenth season of ABC's "The View. She recently released her second book entitled "Celebrity Detox". 

 

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