Liza Minnelli, still in fantastic form, performs Saturday in the headlining show in Bass Hall's 10th-anniversary celebration.
By MARK LOWRY
Star-Telegram staff writer
Star-Telegram staff writer
FORT WORTH -- There was a moment in Liza Minnelli's Bass Hall debut Saturday night where, right before she brought home -- as only Liza can -- the Gershwin song The Man I Love, she giggled ever so adorably.
That's a good analogy for her overall bravura performance, the headlining show in Bass Hall's weeklong 10th-anniversary celebration.
Throughout the show she absolutely tore up (in the best sense) Broadway songs and American standards. Minnelli, still in fantastic vocal form at 62, dedicated a song to Fort Worth's Van Cliburn, whom she called a "good friend."
And all the way through she joked about her very public personal life, admitting "I have had it; I've learned my lesson" before doing a Sophie Tucker hit, I'm Living Alone (And I Like It), and confessing that she can now really identify with one of the stage roles she played, husband-murdering Roxie Hart, before My Own Best Friend from the musical Chicago (it was cut from the film, kids).
The point is, after several sparkly costume changes (the girl is back in dancer shape, lookin' good in knee-high boots and leotards), frequent engaging banter with the audience and two hours of her song-interpretation trademarks (breathy pauses, heavy S's and big song finishes), Liza hasn't lost any of the pizazz on which she built her career.
Speaking of pizazz, her multi-song tribute to her mentor and godmother Kay Thompson's nightclub act, complete with four gents as the Williams brothers (Andy and three sibs), was a high-energy thrill.
It, like the rest of the show, proved that Liza baby, you still got it.
mlowry@star-telegram.comMark Lowry, 817-390-7747
That's a good analogy for her overall bravura performance, the headlining show in Bass Hall's weeklong 10th-anniversary celebration.
Throughout the show she absolutely tore up (in the best sense) Broadway songs and American standards. Minnelli, still in fantastic vocal form at 62, dedicated a song to Fort Worth's Van Cliburn, whom she called a "good friend."
And all the way through she joked about her very public personal life, admitting "I have had it; I've learned my lesson" before doing a Sophie Tucker hit, I'm Living Alone (And I Like It), and confessing that she can now really identify with one of the stage roles she played, husband-murdering Roxie Hart, before My Own Best Friend from the musical Chicago (it was cut from the film, kids).
The point is, after several sparkly costume changes (the girl is back in dancer shape, lookin' good in knee-high boots and leotards), frequent engaging banter with the audience and two hours of her song-interpretation trademarks (breathy pauses, heavy S's and big song finishes), Liza hasn't lost any of the pizazz on which she built her career.
Speaking of pizazz, her multi-song tribute to her mentor and godmother Kay Thompson's nightclub act, complete with four gents as the Williams brothers (Andy and three sibs), was a high-energy thrill.
It, like the rest of the show, proved that Liza baby, you still got it.
mlowry@star-telegram.comMark Lowry, 817-390-7747
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