Liza Minnelli Stepping Out! 2015

Liza Minnelli Stepping Out! 2015

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Bright star Shines




Liza Minnelli EX Online MX

A few months ago, when the tickets for the concert of Liza were put up sale Minnelli at the Nacional Auditorio, I thought: "No longer should she be the same one as before; of that that was delivered to the public and dominated the stage, could not remain anything; neither are they going to sell the tickets". I delayed in agreeing to buy them and was above all by insistence of my daughter, she always is interested in the concerts and artists that come to Mexico.

She reinforced my skepticism the bad health that has dragged Liza in recent years. It is known about her lack of control in the consumption of tablets and alcohol, and in the year 2000 him was diagnosed with encephalitis with a pessimistic forecast that included the inability to speak, to walk and, of course, to dance and to sing.

Thus I arrived at the Auditorio in the afternoon rainy and cold on Monday and I sat down in the seat expecting the start of the show that was announced for the 8:30 at night. For the time being on the stage were only were the instruments of the orchestra that accompanies the singer with blue lighting. At the beginning few people were seen, it seems that the traffic held the arrival of many. They passed the 8:30, the 8:40, the musicians occupied there places and the room began to be full. The lights were put out and she appeared. She burst into singing, received by a standing ovation from the audience that went up through the Nacional Auditorio before my incredulity.

She finished her first song and the public was captivated completely. She wore a brilliant red smock and some black pants, a band of silver sequin to the height of the front surrounding her head. She thanked the reception, spoke of how happy to be in Mexico, of her family, of recent years and suddenly asked: "Do you notice anything different?", and answered: "I have lost 30 lbs. of weight", and she is noted; again an ovation of the public.

She continued singing standing with microphone in hand. She traveled through her life through the songs that have accompanied her since very young. Today she is 62 years old and I admit that left me surprised. Liza is full of life, thin, enjoying her so perfect instrument she has in the throat. Besides her pulmonary capacity is in very good level. To sing “Maybe This Time” carried a chair at the front and said: "Do you recall years ago when I sat down in the second act? Good, therefore now I do it in the first act. I am older and also more ready".

"That of what I am proud?"

She continued in a clear delivery and besides was seen happy, like fish in water. In the enormous stage of the Auditorio this woman displaced herself bajita, but with an imposing presence on the stage, accompanied by twelve musicians and four singers very in the style of the crooners of the 40’s and 50’s. Any woman, only she. Her dramatic movements are so unique, her presence at times transforms her into a girl of affectionate, vulnerable, and wistful eyes, she has complete control of the stage, and the certainty that projects that we have Liza for a while, they were applauded by the public.

Interacted a lot with the public. "In interviews in Mexico they asked me of what I am proud", added: "Of the songs that have been composed especially for me. And already with the nine thousand spectators in a fist freed to sing with all the power of New York, New York.

Liza presented her sister that lives in Cuernavaca, daughter of the second marriage of Vincente Minnelli, whose widow also was in the first rows: "An applause for my darling stepmother", asked affectionately Liza. With her sister Tina Nina sang the theme of the movie “On a Clear Day” is seen until always. A moment of the stage left to change her wardrobe (and I believe to alleviate their flush with a tank of oxygen) and, while, the members of the orchestra were themselves performing.

Liza returned, dress of black. Her image on the two enormous screens that are to the sides of the stage was youthful, full of emotion and enthusiasm, to a little rapid. She directed to the public again and, in a moment, given said: "Today you are my my family." And it was a very emotional phenomenon; the public began to stand up as driven by a spring and like in waves we were Standing up. In the end all of us were standing. All of us that night, the family of the great Liza Minnelli, she, like the Phoenix, revived from her ashes.

Liza Minnelli in Mexico: Déjà vu for the VIP


By Amaury Pérez Vidal


Liza Minnelli, during her tour of Mexico the past weekend The singer-songwriter Amaury Pérez, one of the icons of the new Cuban ballad, along with Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanés, witnessed the concert that Liza Minnelli offered last weekend in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. Amaury, seated in the first row, united by several Friends of the American artist, could not be resisted and wrote this chronicle to present the readers of The event. With Liza, various points of our lives are similar: both of us are children of actors, our mothers were famous actresses, Both died on account of their excesses; our parents, extraordinary directors of shows*. In the show she informed me that her godmother, Kay Thompson, was a great actress of the 30’s and 40’s, like mine, her name was Felicia Amelivia. We have loaded to the cross to inherit the professions of our ancestors and to defend us at all costs of them obliged comparisons. The two, Liza and I, we grew in an odorous and delighted world (with its differences, clear) where the costumes, the sequins, the makeup, the lashes and the jewels were more common than the bread and the rice; this I explain it by way of introduction so that they understand which was the temperature of my emotionality while I went to the concert. The Telmex theater is a wretchedly modern place and of a design that takes your breath away; it is one of the most respected theaters, equipped and comfortable, of the world. Our seats, by the generosity of my brother-in-law, the painter Ulysses González, they cost 120 dollars each one and they were situated in the first row of the VIP zone. So great to be placed in our position: with the curtain closed, what we had in front, barely two meters of distance to the stage, was a foot of microphone, four speakers and three teleprompters (never I have known how is written teleprompters, so please forgive this mistake, if I am wrong). The theater is immense,they air conditioned it for the occasion and thus we cohabitat for two hours some 5 thousand souls in suspense! The questions that flew in the environment were: How will she look?, Will she be fat?, old and exhausted?, will she do a short show for a backward public?, will she repeat what already we have seen her to do in scores of television presentations as a professional actress?, will she behave like a bored and eccentric diva? When the curtain opened, at half past eight exactly, we discover the fascinating world of the authentic art, nothing of mobile lights, a band of 12 musicians, a piano, keyboards, drums, guitar, bass, percussion, a cord of metals that sounded as if in perfect tune with God, with a quality of incredible sound and four dancers-singers, chosen among the best of Broadway, Color and heat added to this festival of the spirit. With the harmonious overture of “New York, New York” pandemonium and anxiousness and then, she appeared. Looking incredible physically than in past years, thin and full of energy! Smiling and charming, with her powerful and fresh voice, a potpourri on two songs: “Teach Me Tonight”-“The Man I Love”, and then we understood that our doubts about rumors would break one after another. She was the Liza we dreamed and willing to conquer us, our life was hers. She was dressed as usual, blouse of shine and flashy sequins, black pants (silver headband and some small earrings of shine, headband later removed), neither a ring, neither a necklace, pale, small and of fragile apperance that later would become a hurricane! That was the principle of all, and thus
a marvelous and captivating show to the purest of New York style, Causing the audience to applaud, to laugh and to cry, she carried us where she wanted, and when after three simple changes of wardrobe, and an hour 50 of show, Liza ended with “You a My Own Best Friend” and “New York, New York” and as an encore “I' ll be seeing you”, acapella! We all knew that we had One of the most extraordinary experiences of our lives.
The force of Fray
We believe to know the performing arts, the delivery that calls, the professionalism, the concentration (I am also is dedicated to this), but with Liza there is another thing, there is a force, a history, a truth, some genes, to fall and then recover, in life we get off track, and in her its proven.

She sang and spoke in English; was so careful and delicate she spoke slowly so that all could understand her. It is so important what she sings, how she sings and what she speaks (speaks a lot, she seems to be herself? **).

Her eyes and her hands are a chapter aside, how she uses them are an essential part of her. Liza does not close her eyes, never, and the hands, delicate and tremulous, without polish, with her nails short by the evidents of anxiety that fills her, she travels through the space as wanting to cover us all: the air and the invisible spaces…AND dances (still with two artificial hips, and scoliosis and at 62 years old) like an adolescent.

I still feel on the verge of exploding, I do not believe she sits down ,I have never felt like this before, and therefore did not know how she does it , the déjà vu multiplied herself in me, I imagine that the people that have had experiences with LSD should come to her shows to feel and to experience the same sensations; there I was, a cubanito, Standing before a living legend and in my own city. When we stood and applauded her in the end, she approached, and I swear her that I could touch her to have tried.

Beside me, my wife Petí shouted, whistled, cried, and was touched so much that I feared for her; my brother-in-law he completed one of the dreams of his life and I discovered a new way to feel happiness.

Seeing Liza and then to die, thus of absolute. God is good to me, I am going to think about Her two times before complaining again about something.

*Consolation Vidal, actress and insurmountable hostess in all the media, and Amaury Pérez, the most complete director of show in theater and TV, are the parents of the Cuban singer-songwriter.

**Amaury Pérez is an untiring conversationalist that can untie monologs from hours set against an arranged audience.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Liza Minnelli Lights up as the diva in magical concert in this country


Liza Minnelli will travel to the state of Texas to close her tour by United States.
April 29, 2008

AFP

Mexico City.- The actress and American singer Liza Minnelli captivated with her magical on Monday night to thousands of followers in the Mexican capital that enjoyed again from her traditional musical repertoire after ten years of absence in this Latin-American country.

The creditor to various recognitions of the prize Oscar and a Golden Globe by her character of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret, was presented in the Nacional Auditorio, the more important stage closed of Mexico City. "I would not be able to be happier, I feel very pleased to visit Mexico and to show them my more recent show", said Liza Minnelli.

The American singer interpreted part of its classical repertoire as "New York, New York", "Maybe This Time" and "Man I Love", among others. Minnelli will carry out besides a presentation April 29 in Puebla. "The Mexican people are musical, loving, they are the best audience than I have known along my path", indicated Liza, who has a sister that lives in this country for already some years. In May, Liza Minnelli will travel to the state of Texas to close her tour by United States and in June will carry out various concerts in England and Scotland.

Liza Minnelli Lights up as the diva in magical concert in Mexico


By: Cronica Show Tuesday April 29, 2008 Hour of publication: 11:01

The singer and American actress Liza Minnelli related her life and her glorious years as the artist in the magical one and only concert offered in this city, before some eight thousand people.

The winner of the Oscar and Golden Globe by her participation in the movie "Cabaret" (1972) returned to Mexico after 10 years of absence, to yield homage to her godmother Kay Thompson and to share stage with her half sister Tina Nina.

The daughter of the mythical figure of Hollywood, Judy Garland (1922-1969) and the director of movies, the Italian one Vincent Minnelli (1903-1986), she sang about twenty songs, without forgetting the most symbolic songs that led to her to succeed to a international level, was "Cabaret" and "New York, New York", among others.

Minnelli lived one of the most sublime moments during her visit upon arriving to the stage, exactly of the 20:45 hours, we saw in the first row her family that lives in this country, headed by her stepmother Georgette Magnani, to whom Liza presented proud before the public.

Her faithful followers, captivated by the legend, who did not stop applauding her and to launch her flirtings in each opportunity she had, during the concert that lasted almost two hours. She responded with kisses and infinity of "thanks".

After receiving a long standing ovation, while the audience listened to the overture of "New York, New York", the American star dressed with a blouse and red top, as well as a black pants and a silver color headband (one of her four wardrobes at night),came out and sang the first song: "Teach Me Tonight".

"The master, I have expected and dreamt of this moment. All my family is in the sky, so you are now my family, thanks for coming to see me", were her first words.

Liza was accompanied by an orchestra conformed of 12 outstanding musicians, among them the friend of her father, the director and drummer Michael Alan Berkowitz, the artist related, through her songs, part of her life and her glorious years as the "Diva of Hollywood".

The scenography of her show was simple, only lights behind that changed of colors, but as they said various of her fans, did not lack anything, therefore with her presence alone was all they needed.

She used her excellent voice and the full artistic control that characterizes her. It seemed that the time had not passed, except she noted the audience: "I recall the last time that I was here, how I sat down to rest in the second act?, good, therefore now I have to sit down since the first act".

She sang then a potpourri with "My ship" and "Man I love". Upon concluding, touched upon her loss of weight: "Already they realized?, I¢ve tried them all, I knew someone that helped me and is my hero".

After "Sara Lee", talked once more with the audience. She related to the vicissitudes that the character personage "Roxie Hart" passed after to having murdered her lover in the musical "Chicago" that she did in 1975, after replacing Gwen Verdon.

Minnelli, of 62 years, was delivered full by means of "My Own Best Friend", "Maybe This Time" and "He's funny that Way", in this last remained seated in a chair.

"I am trembling, because all my family came to see me, please stand up", asked Liza. There they were Georgette Magnani, her sister Nina Minnelli (daughter of her father and who resides in Cuernavaca, Dwell them).

On this last one emphasized: "It taught me to sing" and after the previous thing they showed her talent upon singing "On a clear day", a favorite movie of her fathers and that marked the most emotional moment of the evening. Upon finalizing they were given an effusive hug and the smile of Liza that did not to stop shining.

After presenting her musicians and each one to be solo lit in her Orchestra, the diva entered her dressing room to change clothes.

Now Liza was dressed in black ,she initiated the second part of her show with the immortal song "Cabaret", theme of the film namesake and the one that won her the Best Actress award, the maximum recognition that Hollywood offers from the Academy of Movies.
Although her doctor prohibited her to dance and to sing in a simultaneous way, Liza did it time and again, while the sweat coming from the front was evident and also her exhaustion.

Here was the moment that she paid tribute to Kay Thompson, singer of the 30's to whom Minnelli is her godmother. She invited four male singers , who were to be the William Brothers.

She recalled when she gave the news to Thompson about her mother, Judy Garland, had deceased. "I was 22 years old and I did not believe it, Kay told me that my mom had had a marvelous life and that did everything she wanted".

"Hello", "My best Friend", "Ring the bell" (I Love a Violin?) and "My wedding day", they continued in their repertoire. Visibly she looked exhausted, Liza expressed lightheartedly: "Kate never would finish a show in this way".

With "Mammy", "New York, New York" and sang acapela "I'll be seeing you" said goodbye to her Mexican audience that withdrew satisfied at the Nacional Auditorio.

LizaMinelli will sing this Tuesday in Puebla and then will return to United States to offer more concerts. In May she will visit Russia and Scotland, among others nations.

Liza Minnelli in Guadalajara April 2008

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Liza Minnelli captives in a concert in Guadalajara




12:58 p.m. Has a brief tour by the country

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (Notimex).- Liza Minnelli captivated a more than three thousand people in her first presentation in the country, in the Auditorio Telmex of this city, with a show of almost two hours of duration and with the one that showed she continues more in force than ever.

The stage was more than simple. Minnelli did not need more than her alone presence and some play of lights that changed the atmosphere of hot red to blue colds.

"Thanks Guadalajara, I love to be here, in your beautiful city, in your beautiful country and observing your beautiful faces", the singer before a audience said mostly by adults, although also present some youths that were left to captivated for the legend.

Just as she announced a day before in a press conference, Liza appeared on the stage and did not stop dancing,when she paused from dancing, caused shouts as I love You Liza and you Are beautiful, she thanked in repeated occasions.

In the show nothing lacked her. The followers of the singer listened equally for Cabaret, New York "New York, and even, some lines of the personage of Roxie, that catapulted her to the fame in the musical" Chicago".

The second part of the show was dedicated especially to Kay Thompson, singer and godmother of Liza, with all and a group of four singers and dancing called "The Brothers William", that they accompanied Thompson in her shows.

Minnelli was touched to the edge of tears among each song, upon recalling some passages of her life, above all the last words that Kay told her in life: "Happy Everything".

In the end of the show, a strong standing ovation said good-bye to Minnelli, she will continue with her brief tour of Mexico in Puebla and Mexico City.

Minnelli rejects to being considered a star




26 of April of 2008. Notimex Liza Minnelli arrived the night of Thursday to the airport of Guadalajara, smiling and touched to be met with her Mexican admirers. (Notimex) GUADALAJARA, JAL.- With a prize Oscar as Better Actress, various Globes of Gold, innumerable recognitions and an artistic career that any singer would envy, the American Liza Minnelli rejects to be considered a star. "First and above all I am not a star, do not I consider me and does not himself that mean that", the singer in an animated chat with mass media said yesterday, to a day to offer his first concert in Guadalajara. "I am a worker, I dance, sing, I do my work, and I believe that that has to do with my breeding, I had very good breeding to be a friendly person, that is what I believe that I am, very friendly, and thanks for considering me a star, always thanks", said Minnelli. "I Do not live a life of luxuries, I raise me, I go to my dance class, return, lunch and then I do questions related to work, later I go out to dinner with friends. I believe that there has to be an equilibrium so that all turns out well", added. In her shows in Mexico, that include Guadalajara, Puebla and Mexico City, the singer assures that she will offer a "show" full of energy, magic and dance on the setting, that surely will infect the audience. "I try to give a little bit of all. Obviously what has made me famous, for example "Cabaret" and "New York, New York", they are my seal. I love to dance and I am going to have four people on the stage that do incredibly", the artist said. She added that the concert will also be a homage to Kay Thompson, American singer of the 30's and to whom was Liza's godmother. "It is to whom we are going to have a tribute", added touched. Liza explained that this tour is special, therefore Tina Nina, her sister, will accompany her on the stage of the Nacional Auditorio. "I believe that my life has been magnificent ,I have had magnificent friends, I have a sister that lives here (in Cuernavaca) and is going to be in my concert of Mexico City". The singer will be presented April 26 in the Auditory one Telmex of Guadalajara; the 28 in the National Audience of Mexico City; and the 29 in the Complex Cultural 21st century of Puebla. Reading more you note on Saturday April 26, 2008" Spectacles to Keep in My Century.

LIZA, VINCENT, & MARK (1979)...

Liza between her father, Vincente Minnelli, and her third husband, sculptor Mark Gero, at a party Halston gave for her at Studio 54 in 1979; check out the candlesticks …

Liza, IN "HOMAGE" TO A STAR


OCHO Columnas Newspaper

CONCERT Liza, IN "HOMAGE" TO A STAR
Full of magic, fantasy and music was the night that offered the American in her first one and only presentation in this city.
Without doubt a full evening of glamour, color, energy and elegance was the one that Liza Minnelli offered last night to the public of Guadalajara that accompanied in it the great and unrepeatable presentation that she offered in this city, which in own words of the artist, described as "a marvelous treasure". This concert tribute to "Kay Thompson", godmother of Minnelli, is the form in as the singer says this great friend and companion that was always and in every moment she was supporting her in the highs and lows, being her confidant and faithful counselor after the death of her parents. "My godmother, is an American true woman Woman to which I admire and respect by her dedication and delivery", she indicated from the start of the show ,the winner of the Emmy. In fact, during the unforgettable evening that lasted near two hours, Liza relates fragments very personel of her life next to "Kay", experiences, experiences and learning that will leave there mark to the end of her life, commented. Upon being given the third call and to be opened the curtain exactly of the 20:37 hours, a great white light illuminated the center of the stage, , suddenly, dressed in an elegant and shiny outfit full of red color of jewels, a black pants with some bright decorative elements and a silver band that maintained in her hair, appeared set against the audience that expected her standing Left side, the audience praised the star, who with a great smile and a "good evening!" opened this so expected concert. "They be all welcome, I am very touched to be in this country and together with you, so beautiful is this city ,we will do something very special tonight", were the emotional words that pronounced to the term of her first song. liza was accompanied by the voices of her four dancers and her pianist, Liza sang "You are For Loving", "New York, New York", "Losing My Mind", " Drop Bombs", "So Sorry, I Said", "Love Pains", classical themes that did her large. The stage was dressed and splitted in three small parts in which they were located the musical instruments among the ones that emphasized: Drums, a trombone, a saxophone, trumpets, guitars and scores and at the front of them an elegant grand piano color "black" that accompanied in each one of her melodies to Liza, Her concert was an atmosphere of 100% romantic!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Vincent Minnelli







His marriages ran as follows:
Judy Garland (15 June 1945 - 1951) (divorced) 1 child, Liza Minnelli born 1946
Georgette Magnani (February 1954 - 1957) 1 child, Christiana Nina Minnelli born 1955
Denise Minnelli (1962 - August 1971) (divorced) later married Prentis Cobb Hale
Lee Anderson (April 1980 - 25 July 1986) (his death)







Named his daughter Liza Minnelli after the Gershwin song "Liza." He had directed the number for Ziegfeld Follies (1946), but it was cut from the final version of the film.
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Triumphant Faith Terraces area.
Father-in-law of Jack Haley Jr.
Inventor of the "Crab Dolly", a camera dolly on wheels that can move the camera in any direction.
Insisted on using a shade of yellow in the design of his sets that had to be specially mixed. MGM painters began calling it "Minnelli Yellow."
When he was signed to MGM, he was allowed to apprentice for a year on the lot. By the time he started directing, he knew every department at the studio.
Was voted the 20th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
His widow, Lee Anderson, was his companion for a long time before their 1980 marriage.
Directed 7 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Spencer Tracy, Gloria Grahame, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine and Martha Hyer. Grahame and Quinn won Oscar for their performances in one of Minnelli's movies.
Is portrayed by Hugh Laurie in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) (TV)
According to movie Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, Garland and Minnelli's marriage finally ended when Judy caught him in bed with another man. Minnelli was said to be bisexual
Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967






Filmography
Panama Hattie (1942) (uncredited)
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
I Dood It (1943)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
The Clock (1945)
Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Undercurrent (1946)
Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) (Judy Garland segments)
The Pirate (1948)
Madame Bovary (1949)
Father of the Bride (1950)
Father's Little Dividend (1951)
An American in Paris (1951)
Lovely to Look At (1952) (fashion show sequences)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Story of Three Loves (1953) (segment "Madamoiselle")
The Band Wagon (1953)
The Long, Long Trailer (1954)
Brigadoon (1954)
The Cobweb (1955)
Kismet (1955)
Lust for Life (1956)
Tea and Sympathy (1956)
Designing Woman (1957)
The Seventh Sin (1957) (uncredited)
Gigi (1958)
The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
Some Came Running (1958)
Home from the Hill (1960)
Bells Are Ringing (1960)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film) (1962)
Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)
Goodbye Charlie (1964)
The Sandpiper (1965)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
A Matter of Time (1976)












Selected theatre credits
At Home Abroad (1935) (director)
The Show Is On (1936) (director)
Hooray for What! (1937) (director)






Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago, Illinois, United States,[1] Minnelli was the youngest surviving child of Mina Mary LaLouette Le Beau and Vincent Charles Minnelli. His father was musical conductor of Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Minnelli's Chicago-born mother was of French Canadian descent and his paternal grandfather was from Sicily.






Friday, April 25, 2008

Liza stores in MEXICO!!!


Liza Minnelli Will Share with her sister


Liza Minnelli Will Share with her sister the
stage of the Auditorio Nacional.

By: Tania Molina Ramírez

In an episode of Actor' s Studio, when the interviewer asked to Liza Minnelli if some time had been in Anonymous Alcoholics, she said, “yes! Although it is supposed that him do not he owe to say. By something they are called thus. But never I have been anonymous! I am going to begin now?"

Yes, anonymous has never been. Liza was born famous and chose to continue under the reflectors all her life, until today, at 62 years. Although perhaps her stellar moment, the one that marked her of life, occurred over 30 years ago, when acted in an unforgettable role of Sally Bowles in the movie Cabaret (1972),a role by which won her an Oscar.

Minnelli will be presented the days 26, 28 and 29 of April in the cities of Zapopan, Federal District and Puebla, respectively.

The singer said, in telephone interview with this newspaper, that she is enthusiastic about coming to Mexico. With her private tone exalted, she exclaimed: "I much desire to be there! It is my favorite place in the world!"

Really?

Absolutely! To begin, my sister lives there, Christina Nina Minnelli (half sister, on the part of her father). She lives in Mexico City and she is going to sing on the stage with me.

Then, she is a singer.

Yes, but she is not like I. She does not want promotion to be done. She Is a marvelous, marvelous woman, that works a lot with the church. And I have a nephew and a niece, and I am very pleased because I am going to see them all.

Then, She comes followed to Mexico?

Yes.

So you know well enough this city.

Good, more or less. But master the passion of that city and master the beating of its heart.

And the Mexican music?

The master!

Will there be a little Mexican music in your show?

I hope so! But... nobody thats not from Mexico can do what you do. The true thing is there, and that is the one reason to go there to listen.

then she launched into singing in Spanish: "This afternoon I saw to rain

Aversion by the politics

The history is known: Liza Minnelli is a daughter of the director Vincent Minnelli and the legendary actress and singer Judy Garland, who died at the age of 47 of an overdose, when Liza was 23 years old.

Minnelli is usual to fight with which her life is not hers but of the public, is very conscious of each word that says, and even thus cannot avoid that one remain with the sensation that to speak with the media she is a badly necessary one. Neither hidden hes aversion to speak of politics.

Him it was asked that said the first thing that came to the mind with fragments of songs:

Somewhere over the rainbow. "In Somewhere Over the Rainbow", of the movie The Wizard of Oz, perhaps the most famous song of your mother, who did the role of Dorothy seven years before to be born Liza.)

After a pause, answered: "A niñita that expects the best".

If I can make it there, I' ll make it anywhere. "If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere", of the symbolic song New York, New York.

Fame and people that arrive and try to be adapted, because is the hardest city of the world, and you have to be very good", answered.

That clinking clanking, give a little, get a little, clinking sound, money money, money money, is all that makes, the world go round. "

"The unique thing" that comes to the mind to Minnelli "are the pants of Joel Grey (with whom interprets the memorable scene)."

Just then gives her a prolonged attack of cough, excuses herself and says that was because the memory surprised her: "The unique thing that i remember are the coins; told us, 'you (Minnelli) you have to trap them in your chest and you (Grey), have to trap them in your pants and (coughs again)'; endeavored me for not reírme... Joel said the money is the sex, the money is the sex and the unique thing that we could cause was to laugh... But was a marvelous number.

And thats what you think of , that the money does make the world go round?

Therefore I believe that is quite wise, don’t you? And at the same time had humor.

And this: Blue moon, now I' m not longer alone, without to dream in my heart, without to love of my own, "(blue Moon, now no longer I am alone, without a dream in the heart, without a love that be mine".

That did not I record it.

Is in the Complete Collection of Capitol

Wow! I love that you tell me something that I do not know.

So you never recorded it?

Not, but the curious thing is that I remember to have seen a blue moon. So I understand the dream.

What means to you?

That the people seek inspiration out of ones self. You finds consolation leaving one self, not inside.

This–and how: This land is your land, this land is my land "This land is your land, this land is my land".

Never I have sung that! –she says and laughs.

Not, but what thinks?

What do you think?

Therefore, that is representative U.S.

Do not I know. Is representative of Ireland also, not?

Ireland?

Yes, it can be of any town. Any town wants to feel pride of its country.

Yes, that song was composed by Woody Guthrie, sung above all by progressives speaks U.S. "From California to the island of new York. ..”

And what thinks of you Go we can to justice and equality, go we can to opportunity and prosperity, go we can heal this nation, go we can repair this world “...Sí we can heal this nation, yes we can repair this world", speech of Barack Obama that was set to music and returned very popular).

After a long pause, question: "Who are 'we'?"
After another long pause, adds: "I am not politics. The politics is... I am not this. I am a humanist. I believe in the humanity. I believe in the women, I believe in the good men."

I believe in which you sat down to think about your questions. I believe in which you want to know the answer. I believe in which you did not want... to intimidate me".

–By no means. Good, finally, which would they be the songs that more represent their present?

–Yes, the one that opens Liza with a Z (televised concert in 1972. The song says: "Not to say why, say why not".

The other, that never I have sung, would be On a Clear Day, The movie my Father did (of the same name, 1970).

In the end of the interview, does an enigmatic offering:

–They come to see me. I want that change to seem.

–About what?

–About the life! About the happiness! About the marvelous music!

Auditorio Nacional. 28 of April, to the 20:30 hours.

Junie Moon Poster from Spain...


Thursday, April 24, 2008

LIZA MINNELLI "I belong to Mexico" NUEVO DIA Newspaper


On the other side of the telephone, Liza Minnelli sounds as a girl touched. She answers happy, with a tone very harmonious, vivacious and high voice to its status of showwoman. "Hello, how are you , affection, I am marvelously", the diva of 62 years exclaims, in a little theatrical way, during our interview she explains she has been in the recording studio in New York, where she carries out her next Album, but she preferred not to give details and where, she says, they are charging a million times a minute, which is a little to how the career works. The singer and actress, winner of the Oscar, the Grammy and the Tony on Broadway, is conscious of her status as a legend in the world of the entertainment, although confesses that, to these heights of her life, she already is considered one more artist of the settings, the actress of movies or of theater, for which she rules out to star in a musical on Broadway again . "No, no longer would I do theater again); i like to travel and do my show, the truth... I prefer to do concerts. I am an artist of the setting; never have I been artist of albums, I am perhaps the only singer whose albums are basically my concerts (laughters); whats important to me is to send energy to the people with my show". The star of Cabaret confesses to be touched to return to the country to sing this Saturday in Guadalajara; Monday in the Nacional Auditorio of the DF, and Tuesday, in Puebla. "I cannot wait for to be there. I am very touched. What I will try to offer is everything that to the people they like, from 'New York, New York', to 'Cabaret'. "And I have a surprise: my sister Tina Nina (who lives in Cuernavaca for some years) she will be with me, not only among the public, but she will sing in the show; she asked me not to tell(laughters), so I will not abound in it, but I could not endure it to me, because she is very important for me. I told her: 'Nina, please!', and responded me: 'OK, but don't tell anybody!'". Liza, who will be accompanied by 12 musicians in the show, advances that will also intone themes of the singer of swing of the 1930's, Kay Thompson,” shes my Godmother and one of the people I have most admired in my life.”
"Kay was a great singer of swing; my mother and my father loved it, just like me. She was the most incredible woman and the way she celebrated the music, and that is what I want to do: Celebrating her music".
-What memories you have of your last visit to Mexico?
"Mexico is to me very beautiful, so romantic; its magical. What I remember are the pyramids; I was there and we loved it. Tina Nina accompanied me. I love Mexico because you receive the humanity, the reality and they have a very large understanding of the music. Affection, I belong to Mexico; in truth, I do not see the moment to be there".
-And what do you think that your friends, the brothers, will be your supports?
"I believe that they are of the best; always I have worshipped them. The first time that I saw him, was in The Las Vegas, and since then I have admired him. MYSELF am very proud that they open my shows".
-How do you bear the myth of your own fame?
"I do not believe that you have to fight with it, but, more well, to live with it. What one has to cause is to find the way to express herself to the people that in the reality you are like them and that they understand that, so that they understand you; that way fame has something of romanticism. ..”.
-How do you describe the legend of your parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli?
"It is difficult; my mother and my father were, how can I say!. What I learned from them went to pursue and to reach for what I wanted to do. Since the moment in which I stepped a stage I knew then that I was going to be dedicate and, I can tell you, that since I was 15 years old, I never received again a dollar of my parents".
-You yourself have been a noticeable by being a fierce combatant in the fight against AIDS...
"I believe that one has to be against any thing that kills the people; AIDS not only affects the gay community ; there are many, a lot women affected by this disease; before it, one cannot be egotist. You have to have an understanding of it and to act on the matter. I repeat to you, I am against everything that finish with the life of the people".

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Liza has lived life to the full...


Liza has lived life to the full
Apr 18 2008 By Graham Young

LIZA Minnelli has been there and done it all.
She's played the London Palladium as a teenager, won awards on Broadway, bagged a best actress Oscar and survived four husbands.
Along the way she's taken delivery of two new hips and lived enough of a life to fill dozens of books.
And that's before you even mention the fact that both of her parents were Oscar-winners with enough family history to fill a library.
If any one star guest playing Symphony Hall this year has got The X Factor, it's Liza, even though she's now 62.
Ambition, coupled with a strong work ethic drawn from her family's generations of performers, has clearly served her well. And she clearly saw a kindred spirit in dance-loving Bruce Forsyth by agreeing to appear on his 80th birthday celebration TV show in February.
But, while hit formulas like American Idol and The X Factor might be 'fun to watch' in her words, are they going to do the contestants any favours given how hard Bruce and Liza have both had to work to sustain their careers?
"I think they can," Liza tells me. "They can make it, for sure, if you have the back up and if you know what you're doing."
So what can Tamworth's former dinner lady Niki Evans do to bridge the gap?
If it's astonishing that she can sing as well as Celine Dion, how can Niki convince audiences that she, too, deserves to be seen as a star of equal merit?
"You have to make it your job to learn other ideas," says Liza. "Don't waste your time. Find out who the best people are and learn what they are doing."
Last August, Liza lost her long time musical collaborator, drummer Bill Lavorgna. But, as the old saying goes, the show must go on.
In his place is another drummer who was one of Bill's best friends and she's still got her longtime choreographer Ron Lewis.
"He's wonderful," says Liza. "I also have the best singers and dancers. They sing their butts off and dance brilliantly and we have a ball."
Liza's team rehearsed for five months solid before getting the current tour on the road in the US. After several false dawns in the past, let's hope she stays fit and well to play here this time. Then, perhaps, we can all say: "Didn't she do well!"
* Ticket info
Liza Minnelli plays Birmingham Symphony Hall on June 4. Tickets are priced £35 - £95 plus booking / transaction fees. Details: www.theticketfactory.com or 0121 780 3333.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

'I am a Living Legend'


Liza Minnelli says she has a romance with the Mexicans; promises she will dance as never before in her return to the country 'I Am a Living Legend''
Written By:
July Alejandro Quijano The Universal Thursday April 17, 2008 julio.quijano@eluniversal.com.mx

Her prizes are loaded in a window. There they are, her Oscar (she won for Cabaret in 1972), her two Golden Globes , her three Tonys, her Emmy and her Grammy. "I would like to say some glamorous thing but the truth is that I have them on the shelf of a window".

Liza Minnelli does not despise these trophies, but she says that each one corresponds to their time, that is to say, they are things of the past: "They represent a moment of happiness in my career but nothing more".

Thus, with her prizes well loaded in the window of the past, the actress and singer clarifies: "I am not a legend; the legends are dead people, so, I do Not like that they call me that , because I continue working every day. In every case, i like that they call me: a living legend, ha, ha. If you believe that I am a legend, do you not believe that I am also alive? Please let them say I am not dead, ha, ha".

Thus therefore, Liza Minnelli, the living legend of Broadway and Hollywood, will come to Mexico to present a show that already has rolled for United States and Europe during the last two years. To that she refers when she says she is alive: "Work every day as the artist that I am. On this tour I have had myself coached to dance as never before".

Among laughter, Minnelli counts: "I have escoliosis, two false hips and two broken disks but I assure them that they are going to see me dance and they are going to remain really excited".

Already other times has acted for the Mexican public: in 1973 in the National Audience and in 1997 in the Theater Metroplitan. With voice susurrante (by say not burning, sensual, provocative, lustful) Minnelli summarizes its memories with the Mexican public in a word: "Romance".

On the other hand, is not so easy when she is asked to summarize her career in a fast look toward the past.

"Don't I know it, your dime how would you describe it".

—I would say that has been difficult?

—Do not I know it. That everything I have today is product of my daily effort. I would say that my career is a continuous effort by pleasing to the public.

—Is it hard to be a living legend?

—I don't know, what do you refer with "hard". That is to say, I was born in the world of the fame, for me not another environment exists that be not that of the action. If you ask me about everyday life,I only would be able to speak you of the life in the acting troupe. I do not know the routine nature that the remainder of the people lives.

—Depictions of you, many actresses have acted as Sally Bowles in different versions of 'Cabaret'...

—Is marvelous. I know that the people recall me from that movie, but the credit is above all for Bob Foose that did a marvelous movie.

—You believe that, just as the song says, that 'the life is a cabaret'?

—I believe that there is a great irony in that song because the people think that the facade is in living with insanity but in reality that carries you to a deep solitude. The work in the present is what a full life can guarantee us.

—And you believe that the money makes the world go round?

—Not Absolutely. Does Not it seem you that that is the great irony of the one that sings Cabaret? The money simulates happiness but is not what causes the world to rotate. It would be very sad to accept it.


'Soy una leyenda viva'
Liza Minnelli dice que tiene un romance con los mexicanos; promete que bailará como nunca en su regreso al país
'Soy una leyenda viva''Soy una leyenda viva'
- A A A +
Julio Alejandro Quijano
El Universal
Jueves 17 de abril de 2008
julio.quijano@eluniversal.com.mx
Sus premios los tiene recargados en una ventana. Ahí están su Oscar (que ganó por Cabaret en 1972), sus dos Globos de Oro, sus tres Tony, su Emmy y su Grammy. “Me gustaría decir alguna cosa glamorosa pero la verdad es que los tengo en la repisa de una ventana”.
Liza Minnelli no desprecia estos trofeos, pero dice que cada uno corresponde a su tiempo, es decir, son cosa del pasado: “Representan un momento de felicidad en mi carrera pero nada más”.
Así, con sus premios bien recargados en la ventana del pasado, la actriz y cantante aclara: “Yo no soy una leyenda; las leyendas están muertas así que no me gusta que me nombren de esa manera porque yo sigo trabajando todos los días. En todo caso, me gusta que me digan: una leyenda viviente, ja, ja. Si tú crees que soy una leyenda, ¿no crees que también estoy viva? Por favor todavía no digan que estoy muerta, ja, ja”.
Así pues, Liza Minnelli, la leyenda viviente de Broadway y Hollywood, vendrá a México para presentar un espectáculo que ya ha rodado por Estados Unidos y Europa durante los últimos dos años. A eso se refiere cuando dice que está viva: “Trabajo todos los días como la artista que soy. En esta gira me he puesto a entrenar para bailar como nunca antes”.
Entre carcajadas, Minnelli cuenta: “Tengo escoliosis, dos caderas falsas y dos discos rotos pero les aseguro que me van a ver bailar y van a quedar realmente excitados”.
Ya otras veces ha actuado para el público mexicano: en 1973 en el Auditorio Nacional y en 1997 en el Teatro Metroplitan. Con voz susurrante (por no decir candente, sensual, incitante, lujuriosa) Minnelli resume sus recuerdos con el público mexicano en una palabra: “Romance”.
En cambio, no es tan fácil cuando se le pide que resuma su carrera en un vistazo rápido hacia el pasado.
“No lo sé, tú dime cómo la describirías”.
—¿Diría que ha sido difícil?
—No lo sé. Sólo quisiera que la gente se diera cuenta de que nadie me ha regalado nada. Que todo lo que hoy tengo es producto de mi esfuerzo diario. Diría que mi carrera es un esfuerzo continuo por complacer al público.
—¿Es duro ser una leyenda viviente?
—No sé a qué te refieres con “duro”. Es decir, yo nací en el mundo de la fama, para mí no existe otro ambiente que no sea el de la actuación. Si tú me preguntas por la vida cotidiana, sólo podría hablarte de la vida en la farándula. Yo no conozco la cotidianeidad que vive el resto de la gente.
—Despues de usted, muchas actrices han actuado como Sally Bowles en diferentes versiones de ‘Cabaret’...
—Es maravilloso. Sé que la gente me recuerda por esa actuación pero el crédito es sobre todo para Bob Foose que hizo una película maravillosa.
—¿Usted cree que, tal y como dice la canción, que ‘la vida es un cabaret’?
—Creo que hay una gran ironía en esa canción porque la gente piensa que la felcidad está en vivir con locura pero en realidad eso te lleva a una soledad profunda. El trabajo en el presente es lo que nos puede garantizar una vida plena.
—¿Y cree que el dinero hace girar al mundo?
—No. Absolutamente ¿No te parece que esa es la gran ironía de la que habla Cabaret? El dinero simula felicidad pero no es lo que hace girar al mundo. Sería muy triste aceptarlo.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Liza Minnelli, in Mexico...


62 years old and despite its problems of health, that include several surgeries,Liza has never has left the scene.

In 1973 she presented for the first time her show in the National Audience in Mexico.

By Amalia Rivera


They are memorable the interpretations that the daughter consented of Hollywood has carried out with other large, like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davies Jr., Freddie Mercury and Luciano Pavarotti
After 10 years of absence, Liza Minnelli returns to Mexico with the same show that has been praised from coast to coast in the United States,
Argentina, Chile and Europe, and that will offer in Zapopan, Plastered, the Federal District and Puebla.

Liza is a symbol of the American celebrity, an institution of the music Hall, the diva of Broadway, the legend, the daughter of Hollywood, given the renown of her ancestors: Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli; nevertheless, she is not tired to clarify that she is not but "a singer-actress, a worker that the rear one he splits itself so that the audience leave satisfied. I love my work and I want to be better each day, to continue presenting new things", as expressed to The Day in June of 1997.

Reminiscences

Her first visit to Mexico goes back to 1973, shortly after to have earned the Oscar by its interpretation of Sally Bowles in Cabaret, and having obtained an Emmy for best special on television, Liza with a Z, which was presented to a National Audience. Decades later, in June of 1997, in the theater Metropólitan offered a concert with the consecrated songs and other songs of jazz included in her album Gently. Her last presentation in Mexican was in 1998, when, responding jointly to the call of Esteban Matisson, director of Acapulco against the been, offered in the port a concert, whose success of collection was a contribution to the cause of the been, of the one that has been difusora during decades along with Elizabeth Taylor, among others personalities.

The singer and actress of 62 years grew up on the film sets and she debuted in the movies at the age of three, when she appeared in the final scene of the musical one In the Good Old Summertime (1949), starred with her mother and Van Johnson. At the age of 16, decides to be independent and she starts her artistic career; in 1963 she acted on Broadway in the musical Best Foot Forward. The following year, she sang with her mother at the London Paladium and she began to record albums. In 1965 she won her first Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace.

Liza became a top level dancer, actress with great charisma and intense dramatics and a singer with unusual vocal power, Liza with a Z manages to shake a heavy inheritance and to be recognized by her own merits as an authentic one show-woman; she has memorable performances next to Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in Las Vegas, as well as Freddie Mercury, Luciano Pavarotti and even in the Muppets. Their versatility is such, that in her discography stands out Results, produced by the Pet Shop Boys.

After Cabaret,Liza filmed New York, New York, of Martin Scorsese (1977), that passed unnoticed, and in Arthur, the seductive millionaire, in 1981, that reached good collection at the ticket window, among others, that failed to repeat her success, besides that the movies changed, like she has said: "Hollywood has stopped writing the roles that i like to act". The television, on the other hand, is writing "interesting roles for the women", for which recently has been invited special for the television series Law and Order.
Liza Minnelli only has not earned the four most important prizes of the industry of the American spectacle –the Oscar, the Emmy, three times the Tony, two Globes of Gold and the Grammy, in 1990, by its path, among many other rewards that some nations they have offered him, like the prize of Film Sciences of Great Britain or the David Donatello from Italy–, but is a consented that the public have idolized her for more than two generations: the ones that first worshipped her mother and then to her, and that are maintained faithful. As if that were not enough, besides being the major gay icon of the world.

In spite of her health problems, that include two hip replacements, three surgeries on her knee and one of nodules to rejuvenate the vocal cords, as well as rehabilitations in centers of detoxification, never has Liza left of carry out personal presentations. Liza Minnelli continues standing, shining, full of talent and good humor, seething, showing once more what only a diva of the show business can do.

Liza Minnelli and her show, brought to you by Mexico and by Íntegrus and Mayan Productions, will be presented April 26 in the Auditorio at Telmex , Monday 28 in the Nacional Auditorio of Mexico City, and Tuesday 29 in the Complex Cultural 21st century of Puebla

Liza is dressed in a vintage Halston outfit.

Liza Minnelli performs a powerhouse version of 'New York, New York' on 'Happy Birthday Brucie' (BBC TV) on Sunday 24th February 2008. Liza is dressed in a vintage Halston outfit.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Lunch with a legend


The crazy upbringing, the success, the drink, the drugs, the four husbands. After all that, Emma Brockes expected Liza Minnelli to be a little dotty. But over lobster, endless cigarette breaks - and a mad dash without paying from the Plaza Hotel - she found a smart survivor with the motto 'If you have a bad memory of something, change it' Saturday April 12, 2008The Guardian


I look out for Liza Minnelli as I might for a lost balloon, scanning the restaurant for something small and bright, buffeted on all sides by gusts of recognition. In fact, she appears at the table via my blind spot, alone and on time, and slides into her seat without kerfuffle. We are at the Plaza Hotel, a New York landmark where Minnelli once lived with her family, and she is in at-home attire: casual black top, discreet silver cross, a huge handbag which she'll disappear into periodically in search of a lighter, and almost no make-up - not those great, fern-like lashes nor the white-lead-and-vinegar type face paint that makes her look so startling in photos. She appears younger than 62 and beneath the trembly speech - "Oh, thank you, darling," "Isn't this wonderful?", "Aren't we having fun?" - strikes me as quiet and rather watchful.


It's standard these days to portray Minnelli as dotty, as a woman who, once brilliant at enlivening complicated characters - Pookie Adams in The Sterile Cuckoo, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Francine Evans in New York, New York - turned under pressure of
intolerable fame into someone whose sentences all end in exclamation marks. That she is talented in her own right has never changed the perception that whatever she does - go into showbiz, take drugs, become an alcoholic, win an Oscar, go into rehab, marry four times, win an Emmy, blow the roof off a concert venue - it is all completely inevitable. In interviews, Minnelli is more mindful than a politician of how her words might be used against her to prop up the image of Judy Garland's Tragic Daughter, which is why so many of her statements are either theatrically cheery or battily off-point. To that extent she has become victim of her own persona. But in concert, when she is speaking to her fans, she is more nuanced. In the current show, which is coming to Britain in May, she is the Minnelli of yore, full of sly self-awareness. (She tells a long story about the installation of three closets in her bedroom, which allows for an aside about what she found in them: "Two of my ex-husbands.") During the course of our lunch she hops between subjects, randomly cackling and trying to graft old anecdotes on to unrelated questions. But she is also smart, thoughtful and, at one point, so angry that she looks as if she could vaporise things with her eyes. In other words, relatively normal.
So here we are at the Plaza, where a waiter greets me on arrival with, "Miss Minnelli, welcome." It's that kind of afternoon. Minnelli has been touring on and off since 1965 and it's not tedious, she says, because "it's never the same people. I can always find someone who's going ..." She makes a sceptical face. "It's my job to get that person."
The week before, I had flown to Florida to watch her show at the Hard Rock hotel and casino, the kind of place the dead might choose to spend their holidays. The auditorium was empty in the upper rows, while the wheelchair bays on the ground floor were rammed, and everyone was dressed in diamanté-encrusted velour, like south Florida versions of the Pearly Kings. You could feel the tension before she came on. When Minnelli was performing the show in Sweden last year she collapsed after complaining of dizziness, and in the back of one's mind were those images of her from 2000, leaving hospital swollen and in a wheelchair after contracting encephalitis and being told she would never walk again. "She was always brilliant," said the woman sitting behind me. "Whether she's brilliant now ..."
When Minnelli finally came out she was slim, trim and shaking with nerves. Her motto has always been "Give the people what they want," and, despite a wobbly start, the performance was very good. She worked so hard that the sweat poured off her and, if the high notes were occasionally a journey of small stages, then the energy was thrilling. It didn't matter that the male backing singers looked like Ryanair cabin crew or that coquettish, as a rule, shouldn't be attempted by anyone older than 16½. It worked because she made it seem personal and because she wanted it so badly, even if a large part of her wanting it was a response to the audience wanting to see her want it, if you see what I mean.
Over lunch I say, "There seems to be lots of new material in the show."
"Thank you!" says Minnelli, and realises she has jumped the gun. "Did you enjoy it?"
Yes, very much.
"Thank you!" she says, and we're good to go.
The show is broken up by lots of banter and the new dialogue focuses on Minnelli's relationship with her godmother, Kay Thompson, the late actress and vocal arranger. She makes Thompson sound wonderful, full of wisecracks, life lessons and waspish asides, much as her mother used to come across when she still told stories about her. The anecdotes in the current show use Thompson as the main character and Judy Garland, who was her best friend, as a peripheral figure, in what I take to be a clever way for Minnelli to name-check her mother without over-egging it. But when I ask whether this is so, and whether the new dialogue is a correction to the usual miserable narrative about her, she won't have it.
"That show is who I am," she says. "That's what I've learned. That's my philosophy. That's who I am. And that's it! All the stories are true, that all happened ..." I can't figure out what she's upset about, and then I think: it's the suggestion that the stories she tells about her life are just another competing version, no more authoritative than the rest.
Our starters arrive, lobster bisque. Minnelli says it's nice to have lunch on her days off because she can't eat on the days she performs. "Nerves?"
"No, I have a hiatal hernia, which I got when I was pregnant and they put me upside down trying to hold the baby - and the baby passed away anyway - but I got a hernia, so if I eat and sing like that, and all that muscle, it hurts!" She laughs and I laugh and then we abruptly stop laughing and try to recalibrate. I think even Minnelli is unhappy with the way that sentence worked out. In a long-ago interview she talked about the great sadness of her three miscarriages and her regret at not having children. But the subjects revolve so quickly now that it's whipped away as soon as it has been raised and then we are talking about her singing; how a good cure for nerves is to formulate a character for the song, something she learned from Charles Aznavour. She was recently annoyed by the film about Edith Piaf, in which, she says, "they do what they usually do which is concentrate on the negative. I've heard such wonderfully funny things about Piaf, from Charles. She believed in creating a scandal before every opening. So she'd think of one and ..."
"Ladies ..."
We look up. A woman has materialised.
"I hope you don't mind. We were just talking about you and we think you're just marvellous."
"Thank you, dear," says Minnelli.
"But you gotta do more stuff! You are so talented and ..."
Minnelli says, "I'm working right now! I'm doing an interview, I'm working right this second!"
"But we want to see you more ..."
"Well, now is not the time," says Minnelli. She cackles to show she doesn't mean any harm. The lady smiles and ploughs on.
"I want to encourage you."
"Well, I'm touring all over the place. You gotta buy tickets."
"Well, we have, and I can't tell you how much we enjoyed it."
"Where are you from?"
"Poland."
"I played there, too."
The lady walks off and Minnelli mutters, "That was hilarious." Usually, she says, she hasn't the heart to tell people to go away. "I just fold." It was brave of her to approach us, I say, and Minnelli gives me a "Yeah, right" look. "A lot of people come and have life advice for me. It's a compliment. But instead of saying what they want to say - thank you - they come up with something that opens the door to a discussion. And you find you're stuck. It was a compliment but she put it in a negative way, so it demanded discussion."
The fire alarm goes off just then and, after tolerating the noise for a few seconds, Minnelli says, "Let's go and have a cigarette. Come on. What a great excuse to smoke!" As we cross the lobby someone calls, "Liza, you look fabulous!" "Thank you, honey!" and we walk out on to the hotel steps, where she lights up and says, "Let's sit right here."
At the end of the show in Florida she said, "My dahlings. Thank you. I love you! I love you all! You're my family! Everyone else is in the choir." She pointed up to the heavens. The crowd seemed delighted and a bit embarrassed.
After the show, the corridor outside the dressing rooms was full of stunned-looking couples in evening dress and men in leather jackets and big jewellery - none of whom, one hoped, she would end up marrying. One of the Ryanair boys came out and said, "There are four drag queens downstairs and one of 'em says he knows her."
"How'dz he know her?" growled Gary, Minnelli's manager.
"Says he played Kay Thompson's memorial service."
When Minnelli finally emerged she looked as if she'd been in a boxing match: black sweats, white towel round her neck, face liberated from stage make-up, cigarette in one wildly gesticulating hand. Crossing the corridor, she kept her eyes down before spotting her press agent and butting her head into his chest, like a little bull.
"Mustafa, darling, I ..."
"Amazing," said Mustafa, putting his hands on her shoulders. "You were amazing."
She lifted her eyes. "Oh, thank you, darling. I ... The new material ..."
"Just perfect."
Minnelli went to meet Gary's extended family and I went downstairs, where 30 people with green wristbands were being kept in a holding room. The steward told me they were VIPs.
"They don't look like VIPs."
He lowered his voice. "They're high rollers. They spend so much in the casino they get to meet all the artists."
Minnelli wouldn't be allowed to leave until she had been photographed shaking hands with every one of them in front of the Hard Rock logo.
"Why on earth would an artist go along with that?"
He looked at me as if I was very stupid indeed. "It's in their contracts."
Minnelli whooshed past my elbow just then. She was still vibrating and paused, for a second, to throw down her cigarette. "Kill that for me, will ya?" Then she threw on a smile and charged into the room.
Minnelli was a child when she lived at the Plaza with her mother and two siblings, in an era when they frequently moved between hotels. Garland would occasionally order them to put on all their clothes and do a midnight flit to avoid paying the bill. There was a time when Minnelli would light-heartedly talk about this and tell journalists that one of the first things she learned to do as a child was dial down for room service - if she hadn't done so, she'd have starved. But the wryness of her tone was lost in translation and she eventually replaced it, in interviews at least, with a blander positivity.
We are still sitting on the steps outside and Minnelli is talking about the children's books that Kay Thompson set here. She lived at the Plaza, too, and wrote about Eloise, a little girl living at the hotel who was partly based on her goddaughter. Minnelli's reading of Eloise is that she was "a kid, alone, in this huge hotel and she found ways to entertain herself. It is not a children's book - it's for adults..."
"Is it quite dark?"
"No. What is this with the dark? She understands how to entertain. All the kind of stuff... I'm doing an interview, I'm sorry."
Minnelli breaks off to address a man standing 10 feet from us with his mouth half open. He frowns at her. "You look different in person," he says.
"I'm sad to hear that," she says.
"No, younger," he says.
"Oh, well, thank you very much."
I tell her, "You've got amazing peripheral vision. I didn't even see that guy."
"Oh, yeah. I grew up watching, to protect Ma. You know. I can see them coming."
She drags on her cigarette.
It's annoying.
"No."
Come on. A little bit annoying.
"Not if they're nice. I mean, it's funny when they're opinionated, but at least they're coming over. My God, what if they didn't come over?"
What if they didn't come over?
"It wouldn't be working."
Her parents met on the set of Meet Me In St Louis, the 1944 MGM musical directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring a 22-year-old Garland, who, fresh from The Wizard Of Oz and all those Mickey Rooney pictures, was already hugely famous. They married and had a daughter, and when Garland hit upon a name for her she is said to have exclaimed, "Liza Minnelli! It'll look great on a marquee!" Liza's first film role was as "uncredited baby", carried on screen by her mother at the end of In The Good Old Summertime. She says that she wanted to be an ice-skater before she wanted to be a singer or an actor, but that didn't last long. Minnelli has tried over the years to defend her parents as funny and clever as well as dysfunctional, and to balance the stories of how, as a child, she hid Garland's pills and ran the household with a measure of comedy, fairer to the people involved. Her dad, she says, was "a real gent. He never bragged about anything." She was five when her parents divorced and after a period of stability in California was offered the choice of going to boarding school or accompanying her mother on tour. She chose the latter and has described it as both wonderful and awfully lonely. It was hard, she said, to hang on to friends when she changed schools so often.
Now she says that's nonsense; she still has lots of friends she made when she was four: "One of my best friends [from that era] is Jeanne Mockridge, daughter of Cyril Mockridge, who wrote the music for all the movies at Fox. I saw her last week in Florida. And the Levant kids were wonderful, Oscar Levant's kids." You wonder where these people were when David Gest came on the scene; you hope that, in the same position, your friends would stage an intervention or have you sectioned.
When Garland died of a drug overdose in 1969, Minnelli was 23 and already successful, the winner of a Tony Award for her role in the Broadway show Flora The Red Menace, and with a film, Charlie Bubbles, under her belt. She won her first Oscar nomination that year for her role as a smart, eccentric teenager in The Sterile Cuckoo - "Juno is today's Sterile Cuckoo," she says - and three years later won the award for Cabaret.
She talks about her mother's death in the show, about how Kay Thompson rang her that afternoon, although the two hadn't spoken for ages. "Momma died," said Minnelli, and Thompson said something like, "Oh honey, she always did everything she wanted to do. And she loved it all."
"There's a good side to all of it," Minnelli is saying. We are still on the steps. She is talking about life in general. "I think that's the greatest gift one can have: point of view. You know? I've come to believe that if you have a bad memory of something, change it." She reverberates with laughter.
How?
"Change it! Rewrite it for yourself and it becomes funny. It's up to you, how you feel, and what you look at and what you concentrate on. I honestly believe it's about balance. It's when everything gets a little cock-eyed that you go, 'Whoa, I've got to get balanced again.' If you don't like something, rewrite it."
So when does that become denial?
"I don't give a shit."
At the age of 21, Minnelli married Peter Allen, an actor and protege of her mother's, and they divorced seven years later. Allen died of an Aids-related illness in 1992. She was then married to Jack Haley Jr, son of the actor who played the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz, for five years, and then to Mark Gero, a stage manager and artist, for 13 years. And then in 2002 she married David Gest, in a ceremony no one who has seen the photos can ever forget. The marriage broke down a year later amid such lurid accusations and counter-accusations that I realise, suddenly, I don't believe any of it. I assume Minnelli will have a pat response and so it is quite innocently that, after she has said, "Your point of view is up to you and it can save your life," I ask, by that logic, how far are you into the process of reconstituting the memory of your last marriage?
I have never felt the tone of an interview change so sharply. Minnelli's eyes seem to darken and she turns away. When she turns back her face is livid. Needlessly, I add, "Can you laugh at it yet?"
She hisses, "It doesn't exist."
But you joke about it in the show? In the prelude to a song from Chicago she says something like, "This is sung by a woman who murders her husband. I know how she felt." It gets a big laugh. So...
"No comment."
Well, except that ...
"I said ..."
But ...
"I said, no comment."
But you put it in the show.
"No comment. What I said in the show I said in the show. That's it."
We sit there in silence.
I say, you know David Gest is a big thing in England, he's a cult figure there, since ... "I don't care," she says, and her voice is all the scarier for being quiet - seething rather than shouting. "You wanna talk about something that I like, we'll talk about it. I don't talk about that. It's a decision I made and I keep to it." She points to a man passing by. "Look, nice coat." And, just like that, she moves on.
We get up to go inside, meet more admirers in the lobby ("Thank you, thank you, so much. No, I'm doing an interview, nice to see you. Oh, I remember you - nice to see you"), return to the table, talk about Tony Bennett ("He's a good friend"), and then the fire alarm goes off again. I swear. Minnelli says, "We could split. You wanna split? Let's go."
We gather up our stuff and walk towards the door. "Hang on," I say. "I have to pay the bill." Minnelli looks at me as if I've taken leave of my senses. "No! You don't pay when that happens, when they burst your eardrums. This is the Plaza."
She gives a little wave to the waiter, whose mouth starts to become unhinged, calls, "Bye, dear! We'll be back another time!", grabs me firmly by the elbow and wheels us towards the exit. "Come," she says. And out we go.
Five minutes later we're looking in the window of a jewellery store. Minnelli points at some earrings. "Beautiful. Can you see the woman's face if she received those from somebody? If someone fabulous gave them to her?" Gest was a buyer of ostentatious jewellery for his wife, usually when a camera crew was around to film him doing it. I ask what her favourite piece of jewellery is and she says, "Actually, I've decided that I am totally against jewellery. So I have all fake. There's no reason to have real diamonds. People think it's real anyway."
We walk into Cipriani's. "Buon giorno, Carlo, nice to see you. It's Miss Minnelli, for two." She tells me she is going to Mexico in a few weeks, to see her half-sister on her father's side, Christiane Nina Minnelli. "My father used to call her Tina Nina. She's wonderful." On her mother's side she has a half-brother, Joey, who is a photographer, and a half-sister, Lorna, a singer, both children of Garland's third husband, Sid Luft. Lorna occasionally stands in when Minnelli is unavailable, or unaffordable, and this raises inevitable tensions. Years ago she gave a pious interview to 60 Minutes in which she implied that Minnelli was too self-destructive, at that point, to have a relationship with, but that the "door is always open".
Wasn't Lorna on stage recently?
"Huh? Yes. She's doing great work."
It was in Rufus Wainwright's show, where he recreated Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. In her own shows, when Minnelli is asked to sing Over The Rainbow, she calls back, "Oh, honey, that's been sung." Wainwright sings it, however, and so does Lorna Luft. Minnelli says, "I didn't understand [the Wainwright show]. But, that's my problem, if I didn't understand." She says, "As long as she enjoyed it, that's fine."
"Now," she says, "Shall we have a dessert or something luscious?"
The paucity of parts for women over a certain age in Hollywood has been made up for, to some extent, in television, and Minnelli is an unlikely beneficiary. She won an Emmy in 1972 for Liza With A 'Z', a televised concert directed by Bob Fosse and still amazing today - fiercely original, wonderfully choreographed, sexy and funny, without a whiff of mawkishness. And she returned to TV a few years ago in the brilliant comedy Arrested Development, as Lucille Austero, a mentally disordered woman trying to lick herself into shape for a mentally disordered man. It was a reminder of what a fine comic she is. Lucille had such bad vertigo she had to cling to the walls even at ground level. "When we were creating the character I said, I think she falls down a lot - that when she's upset, her balance goes."
We clear our plates of huge desserts. Licking the last crumb, Minnelli says, "Well, I hated that, as you can see."
I ask what her favourite songs are and she says, a little sadly, "the ones written for me". For many years she was the muse of Kander and Ebb, and there's a song she sings from Chicago called Nowadays, which she performed 30 years ago under Fosse's direction. It's striking for its ferocity and the way she sang the happy lyrics - "Isn't it good, isn't it great?" - with such anger and despair.
"When Fosse directed you, you always had a subtext. Always. He'd see what you came up with, then he knew how to guide you."
In Rob Marshall's film version of Chicago, Renée Zellweger sings the song as a jolly number, with - if we're being generous - a subtext of damp wistfulness. But Minnelli played the Roxie Hart of the original stage version, who unlike her counterpart in the film was a failure to the end. "In the play she never becomes a hit," says Minnelli. "She's just in cheap houses, the jailhouse circuit." Her version of the song is pushed through gritted teeth until it becomes, finally, halfway hopeful. As we wait, this time, for the bill, she explains, "She's been through this rotten circus and she's thrown in jail and she's singing, "It's good, isn't it great?" A quiet smile. "It's the irony."
· Liza Minnelli's UK tour starts on May 25 at the London Coliseum

Thursday, April 10, 2008

The South Bank Show to profile Liza Minnelli



The South Bank Show to profile Liza Minnelli 9 April 2008
The South Bank Show‘s season continues with a profile of one of the most successful entertainers of the modern age, Liza Minnelli. Melvyn Bragg interviews Liza Minnelli at the London Coliseum as she prepares for her forthcoming UK tour, with exclusive footage filmed in Florida of the show she will be bringing to Britain, performing some of her most iconic songs.The South Bank Show looks at Liza’s relationship with her tormented mother, Judy Garland, and her fight to be recognised on her own terms - which eventually established her as one of the world's great show business icons.After all her well publicised troubles with addictions and relationships, Liza has been receiving ecstatic reviews for her new show, which brings together some of her signature tunes (Maybe This Time / New York New York) and a special selection of songs devoted to and arranged by Liza's beloved godmother, Kay Thompson. Kay Thompson was the leading vocal coach in Hollywood in the 40's and 50's, a key figure in the golden age of MGM musicals, a composer and author, and above all, a dear friend to Judy Garland, and perhaps a safe port in a storm for Liza the child, growing up in the overwhelming, glittering and yet addled orbit of her mother's fame.The preview of Liza's show business tribute to Kay Thompson provides a fascinating insight into the world of Liza's childhood, her continuing relationship with her mother (an overarching influence on Liza even in death) and her father, the great film director Vincente Minnelli.The South Bank Show also examines Liza Minnelli's unique relationship with the British - she has influenced many of our performers from Freddy Mercury to punk and the Pet Shop Boys. She lived briefly on the Kings Road in London with her mother as a teenager and there is scintillating archive of their iconic performance together, in 1964 at the London Palladium.The South Bank Show: Liza Minnelli, Sunday 4 May 2008 – Time TBC.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008