L I Z A !

Liza Minnelli's Extravagant Night Out in N.Y.C.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20607536,00.html
Liza Minnelli was just left of center stage Tuesday night in New York City while dining with pals at Upper East Side bistro Match 65.

"Her table was right near the hostess stand," an onlooker tells PEOPLE of the iconic entertainer. "She looked fantastic and appeared to smoke more than she ate."

Minnelli munched on kumamoto oysters and escargot with extra garlic, while sipping on iced tea.

Dressed in all black, she put on an "amazing" wine-colored fedora before she left, says the observer, adding, "She looked like a pimp!"
– Kristin Boehm

Liza Minnelli - Consider Yourself / Hello, I Love You - Paris, Olympia, ...

Liza Minnelli - What did I have....HAPPY GAY PRIDE NEW YORK!!!

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969)...

LIZA 2011

LIZA FLASHBACK ~ London 1973...so Divine!

Liza Minnelli, Hampton Court Palace Festival - review...

http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/music/liza-minnelli-hampton-court-palace-festival--review-7854266.html

Zinging in the rain, Liza is still hard to beat

Review: André Paine

Staged in the courtyard of a 500-year-old royal palace, this opening night of Hampton Court’s annual music season – now in its 20th year – was more soggy summer party than muddy festival.

Fans had been happily sipping Moët in waterside gazebos and tucking into £75 Jamie Oliver hampers for two. Then almost as soon as the 66-year-old diva appeared, the rain came down.
Minnelli’s voice faltered like erratic radio reception during the opening Alexander’s Ragtime Band and it fell to her veteran musicians to distract our attention.
But for a star who’s overcome illness, alcoholism and four failed marriages, a wayward vocal and British weather were minor inconveniences. Drawing on audience goodwill and her hunger to perform, Minnelli battled on and ultimately triumphed with an emotive set of cabaret songs, jazz standards and show tunes.
“I gotta hit this note – or ‘off with her head!’” she cackled, a self-aware nod to her vocal limitations in the Tudor setting.
Minnelli was such enjoyably eccentric company – she was constantly hoisting up her ill-fitting trousers – it was easy to overlook the occasional drawling, breathless delivery.
When she sang from Chicago, in which she appeared “about 500 years ago on Broadway”, Minnelli found her voice as the redoubtable Roxie Hart.
Her Cabaret tunes were even more affecting, ranging from the yearning of Maybe This Time to the joyous title song, including a wonderfully wonky English accent for the occasion.
Minnelli strutted across the stage with an alarmingly coquettish display during New York, New York, and she proved musical theatre can be subtly magical with On Such a Night as This, which referenced her mother Judy Garland. Even a jet plane couldn’t ruin the delicate encore of Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.
There may be technically more proficient performances at Hampton Court Palace Festival. But for sheer emotional drama, Liza Minnelli is still hard to beat.
Hampton Court Palace Festival runs until 24 June. Hamptoncourtpalacefe

MICHELLE RYAN IS IN AWE OF LIZA MINNELLI

http://www.express.co.uk/features/view/326849

Saturday June 16,2012

By Lizzie Catt, Lisa Higgins and Jack Teague

Have your say(0)

AS Liza Minnelli made a rare appearance headlining the opening night of the Hampton Court Palace festival on Thursday there was one super-fan dying to meet the singing legend.

Actress Michelle Ryan is set to take to the West End stage in October in the musical Cabaret, playing the part
made famous by Liza, 66, so Michelle was eager to see her up close, right.

“She’s a legend and truly amazing,” says Michelle, 28.

“When I played the Bionic Woman I didn’t want to revisit any of the old shows but with Cabaret it’s ultimately going to be Liza’s role.

"I’m just absorbing as much as possible before rehearsals start.”

3D Liza Minnelli Maybe This Time - Live Hampton Court Palace

Go Liza! "New York New York" Hampton Court Palace 2012!

Divine Liza Minnelli Caberet - Live Hampton Court Palace 2012!

Liza Minnelli Every Time We Say Goodbye Hampton Court Palace 2012!

LIZA ~ BEMELMANS BAR at The Carlyle Hotel with special treat June

LIZA FLASBACK ~ 70's Fashion Icon!

Liza Minnelli stages impromptu gig on Garland's birthday!

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/Liza-Minnelli-stages-impromptu-gig-on-Garlands-birthday_48440168

CABARET star LIZA MINNELLI marked what would have been her mom JUDY GARLAND's 90th birthday on Sunday (10Jun12) by giving a surprise performance in New York City.
The veteran entertainer was with pals at Carlyle Hotel's Bemelmans Bar to watch a gig by Jim Caruso and Billy Stritch when she was invited to step onstage.
Minnelli thrilled the audience as she wrapped up the show by belting out I Love A Violin, a track originally made popular by her godmother Kay Thompson.
A source tells the New York Post gossip column Page Six, "Jim just asked Liza if she wanted to sing, and the crowd cheered her to do it. That was the final song of the set. After all, how could they top it?"
It was a poignant day for Minnelli - her late mother Garland, who died in 1969, would have turned 90 years old.
The singer/actress took to her Facebook.com page on Sunday to pay tribute to The Wizard Of Oz icon, writing, "Mama gave each and every one of us the gift of hope, laughter and love."

Copyright WENN.com - World Entertainment News Network

Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/entertainment/celebrity/Liza-Minnelli-stages-impromptu-gig-on-Garlands-birthday_48440168#ixzz1xiG5l5va

Strip Scribbles: Liza Minnelli remembers ‘Mama’ Judy Garland

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/jun/11/strip-scribbles-liza-minnelli-remembers-mama-judy-/

By Robin Leach (contact)

Monday, June 11, 2012 | 4:06 p.m.

Las Vegas veteran and regular Liza Minnelli commemorated what would’ve been her mother’s 90th birthday Sunday -- Judy Garland died in 1969. Liza said: “Today is a day for celebration. We celebrate the privilege of having had Mama touch all of our lives.
“She left us with so many feelings we never would have discovered about ourselves until she exquisitely translated them to us with her voice. She is to be missed deeply, yes … but, what if we never had her? That’s what we celebrate today. Mama gave each and every one of us the gift of hope, laughter and love.”
On Sunday, Liza, a four-time Tony Award winner, attended the Gershwins’ “Porgy & Bess,” whose lyrics were co-written by her godfather Ira Gershwin. She also stopped backstage after the show to wish the cast good luck at Sunday night’s Tony Awards.
The show was nominated for 10 awards at the 66th annual Broadway ceremony, where it won “Best Revival of a Musical” and Best Actress for Audra McDonald. Liza heads to England today, where she’ll perform Thursday at the Hampton Court Palace Festival.

Liza Remembering Judy Garland on Her 90th Birthday...

Today is a day for celebration. We celebrate the privilege of having had Mama touch all of our lives.
She left us with so many feelings we never would have discovered about ourselves until she exquisitely translated them to us with her voice.
She is to be missed deeply, yes…But, what if we never had her?
That’s what we celebrate today.
Mama gave each and every one of us the gift of hope, laughter, and love.
– Liza
from Liza's Official Website: http://www.officiallizaminnelli.com/blog/?p=587

Ultimate pop art - Why gig posters are a sound investment...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/ultimate-pop-art--why-gig-posters-are-a-sound-investment-7827640.html

Posters have always been sentimental souvenirs of a concert. But now they are being seen as art, and an investment.

The revival began with the artists who rose alongside the late 1980s US indie boom, culminating with Nirvana. Each subsequent generation has become bigger, with refugees from the skateboard, graffiti, hot-rod, tattoo and comics art scenes referencing pop culture. "A lot of the artists we deal with are still playing in bands and connected with music in quite an earthy way," says Chris Marksberry, owner of the Flood Gallery, London's first specialist dealer in this burgeoning field. Gig posters hold two aces in the wider art scene: their rock subjects' enduring potency, and affordability. "Affordability's something the artists are very conscious of," says Marksberry. "They're trying to fill a place in the lives of people who aren't trying to get into the art world as such, but want something special. It's meant to be street-level, accessible art. Some of the more popular artists do evolve into other areas and exhibit in high-end places, ultimately. But the gig poster scene will always stay affordable. The top people sell in the US for $75 a piece, and the less established ones for $20-30. The most expensive we've sold is a £350 White Stripes poster by Rob Jones. Its usually the artist that makes it collectible."
"I'm an art enthusiast," says Ron Vinion, a 60-year-old from Chicago with a 2,000-strong collection. "You get the satisfaction of a good painting, but you can afford a more frequent fix."
Gig posters' unusually democratic nature as collectible art does take a battering once it enters US collectors' hands. California's D. King Gallery's most expensive current item is a $5,000 poster from a 1973 Rolling Stones gig. Current, collectable US artists such as Emek ($850 for a 2003 Neil Young print, $300 for PJ Harvey) and Jones's White Stripes work (up to $500) also leap out from the gallery's $25-35 norm. Marksberry watched a piece the Flood Gallery commissioned from popular San Francisco artist Chuck Sperry balloon in value. "It was an edition of 50 that we sold at £90 per print, and sold out within half an hour online. The next day they were available via trading sites or eBay for $400, and I've seen one for $1,000."
"A lot of these printers [a term for the artists] really dislike the people who 'flip' the posters onto eBay before they even have them in their hands," Vinion admits. "I can't see any point getting ticked off, because it's a commodity. The most I've paid is $1,000 for a Willie Nelson poster by Geoff Peveto that was printed on steel, with bullet-holes put through it like a country road-sign. Jim Pollock travelled with [hard-touring US 'jam band'] Phish and did posters in the parking lot for each show, and some of them are going for I'd say $5,000. But typically, good stuff direct from the artist is $10 up to $100."
Though artists sometimes hold back a few prints for a slightly higher, later price, or use variants in the colour and paper of prints to fuel their collectability, these are by-products of the scene's purpose. "Art and art collecting are unfortunately very elite pursuits, culturally and economically," says Dan MacAdam of Chicago trade organisation the American Poster Institute. "The gig poster's an antidote to this. Music is essential to the identities of a great many people who wouldn't otherwise think themselves consumers of art. The posters let people of modest means put something on their wall that represents a part of themselves."
The posters also offer a return to the tangible fantasy world fans have always built around bands, resisting the retreat to music as a digital, invisible experience. "Bands don't have a 12-inch gatefold sleeve now," says the Flood Gallery's manager Tom Warner, "they have a 600 x 600 pixel picture on iTunes. Posters give them an outlet."
"Music's always been about eye as well as ear, hasn't it?" Marksberry suggests. "When I got into Led Zeppelin at 15, the image of the band was really important – the art of albums, the posters of Jimmy Page. You buy into a band for more than just the music, because of some connection with your lifestyle. I couldn't have learned to love my favourite bands in the same way without seeing how they looked, and how they move and their art. That iconography is visual. You could sensibly connect the poster scene and the rise of vinyl, which are both going through the roof in America. A lot of the artists have commented to us that the poster scene has been a way of bringing something beautiful back to a digital world."
Denver's John Vogl, at 25 part of the scene's cutting-edge, agrees. "Digital is slick and condensed, as everything seems to be going, but there's always that demand for something tactile," he tells me from his Denver studio. "Posters are large. They fill your wall. When you can see the charm of the printing, it's completely opposite from an MP3 player."
The work on display at the Flood Gallery when I visit often strengthens its subjects' iconic stature, such as Rhys Cooper's poster of Neil Young in front of a favourite vintage car in a wheat-field, and his wild-eyed young Dylan, harmonica sparkling. Vogl applies his trademark woodcut-style, natural imagery to Robert Plant, while Arcade Fire's Hyde Park show last year is illustrated by anarchist-style tattered flags. "Some of the posters don't appear to have any significant connection to the band," Marksberry says. "They're almost a vehicle for these artists' best visual ideas."
"I always start with the music," Vogl counters. "I look at lyrics, song titles, and just listen. It's a gut reaction to the music, as far as what image comes up."
One aspect is non-negotiable. "The scene talks as one about the importance of it being limited-edition," says Marksberry. "No one's trying to create a poster that'll sell a million, the Take That moment. It's a counterpoint to the mass market, as well as digital." For Vogl, self-printing is vital. "When I'm mixing colours by hand, and laying it down on a special type of paper, it changes into something new," he says. This has inevitably reduced gig posters' use in actually promoting gigs. "There's less and less tacking the silk-screen posters on telegraph poles," Vogl admits. "Bands purchase the rights to reproduce the artwork on cheaper paper, and sell actual posters at the show."
"Some artists – Queens Of The Stone Age, Arcade Fire – are very interested in their posters, and get involved in commissioning," adds Marksberry. "Most famously, the ones Rob Jones produced for a White Stripes tour were incredibly iconic, and had a strong affect on the band's artwork. That relationship added a dimension to how the band are perceived." Vogl's experience hasn't been so satisfying. "I did do a poster for St. Vincent and I got to meet her after the show. She said, 'Thank you for not drawing me with huge knockers.' I didn't really know how to respond."
There have been two big recent changes: a parallel boom in original film posters, and the scene's globalisation, leading to British artists banding together in London's UK Poster Association, Brighton's BRAG Collective and Liverpool's Screenadelica. "When I started in 2003, I was about the only UK person doing it," Manchester's Nick Rhodes believes. "There's about 20 of us here now, which is great. People make careers out of it in America. In this country you've got no real chance. Band managers are a brick wall I've hit many times. They'd rather use a photo. But touring bands who go to the States are twigging on there's a really big market. Mogwai, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly! and Gallows are really into the poster scene."
Ron Vinion ponders where the scene which consumes all his spare time and money may end. "My wife, who's a nurse in a mental hospital, thinks I'm crazy for doing this," he laughs. "I tell her it's too soon to know if I'm insane or a genius."
The Flood Gallery, 8 Greenwich Market, SE10 (thefloodgallery.com), and exhibits at the Greenwich Summer Festival, Greenwich Park from 4 July

The beautiful psychedelic gig posters that helped define the 1960s San Francisco rock scene are no longer a lost, joss-stick-scented tradition. Musicians from Arcade Fire and PJ Harvey to Bob Dylan and Liza Minnelli are using limited-edition posters to accompany shows, as an often strikingly original counterpoint to their music. Just as in the old days, the artists silk-screen print by hand in batches of a few hundred.

LIZA"S "GYPSY" in her soul! @ Dramatists Guild Fund's 50th Anniversary Gala Honoring John Kander...

Jim Caruso on Cabaret and Liza Minnelli

http://www.backstage.com/bso/content_display/news-and-features/e3i437f20577ee883ccf6d60e5e66146e29

By Laura Meltzer

June 8, 2012

photo: Joseph Marzullo

Life is a cabaret for Jim Caruso, whether hosting “Cast Party” at Birdland or performing alongside the iconic Liza Minnelli.

Back Stage talked with the entertainer at the Actor’s Fund Benefit on Thursday, where he discussed the world of cabaret.

Most of your performance career has been hosting cabarets. Why have you mainly focused on solo entertainment, instead of story- based performance? 
Jim Caruso: I came to New York with a vocal trio called “Wise Guys” and that’s really where I started making great inroads and it’s kind of snowballed from there. I would love to do more Broadway. Billy [Stritch] and I did “Liza’s At the Palace” three years ago, which was thrilling. I was so much younger then and it was just the thrill of my life to be at the Palace, sing Kay Thompson arrangements, and to have Billy there with the piano and giving me the “thumbs up,” with Liza. It was a thrill. I’m opened to all venues. 

What did you learn about cabaret performance from working with Liza?
Caruso: What I’ve learned from Liza is maybe nothing that she’s said verbally, but watching her through the years she’s always going forward. She always has the next project and looking to the next job, the next idea. She has a million ideas at the same time. I think that’s a great impetus for me to move forward. She’s been a great friend for 20 years. She definitely has been a huge influence on Billy and my career.

You’ve led a versatile career including journalism, Broadway, and nightlife entertainment. If you had to choose one, what would you choose and why?
Caruso: If I could do “Liza’s At the Palace” for the rest of my life I would be very happy. It was an incredible job and for all the reasons I told you. The most fun ever, but you can’t. Still, “Cast Party” is a blast, and to be able to celebrate new talent all over the country, we do it in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago. I think I’d pick “Cast Party.”

What is the best way for a young performer to make their way into the cabaret world?
Caruso: Cabaret is a great place to create a persona as a performer, which I think is rather important. If you’re also doing theater, it…gives you more of a sense of yourself when you walk in to an audition. It’s a wonderful community of friends and people who are creating themselves onstage and really magical moments in small venues. 

Liza Minnelli at The Fred and Adele Astaire Awards

http://joonbug.com/national/scenetracker/Liza-Minelli-Tony-Danza-Honor-Dance-at-the-Fred-Adele-Astaire-Awards/wLUI5WSfw7C

Thursday, June 7th, 2012 at 11:03 am | Josh Cohen

With a shining bright smile, a short blonde 9-year-old boy named Luke Spring opened the evening with an impressive tap dance number, riling up the crowd like a smokey cabaret lounge cheering on a young prodigy.

For 30 years, the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards have been honoring the dancers and choreographers that have gone over looked by mainstream recognition. 

As producer and welcoming speaker and Patricia Watt puts it, "We're here in the middle of awards season and dancers have yet to be recognized. Well, we're here to change all that."

The show was held at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University and  was directed by NYC Dance Alliance founder, Joe Lanteri, and was full of touching speakers and astounding performances from Fosse and Newsies. 

Overarching the theatrical evening was the presentation of the Douglass Watt Lifetime Achievement Award, won by Liza Minnelli. Between swiftly elegant dance numbers, friends such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Joe Morton, Tony Danza, and Chita Rivera praised the talents and friendship of Ms. Minnelli, who in return was so enamored, walked right toward the audience, threw up her arms and smiled, "I feel more alive onstage than anywhere else because I'm with you."

The inspiring display of stunning talent and rich history was a benefit for the Douglas Watt Family Fund for the Performing Arts’ Dance & Movement Therapy Program for autistic children.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski

Marvin Hamlisch, Liza Minnelli, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tony Danza

Liza Minnelli stops the show at John Kander gala...

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/06/05/liza-minnelli-stops-the-show-at-john-kander-gala/

by Marc Snetiker

There was a moment on Sunday night at the Dramatist Guild Fund‘s 50th Anniversary Gala that I won’t soon forget.
Somewhere between the second and third course of dinner at the swanky Mandarin Oriental hotel in New York, I was escorted over to a table at the center of the ballroom, where I found myself privately engaged with Liza Minnelli and guest of honor John Kander — both true definitions of the word ‘legend.’ As I knelt down, Liza took my hand and asked if I knew John Kander. I couldn’t speak; I just nodded. They both waited patiently for me to eke out a question to ask — I’m the journalist, after all, interrupting their dinner to get my story — and finally I asked (though I don’t remember it),”Liza, fill in the blank. My life was changed by John Kander because…”
As Kander exclaimed “Oh God, that’s not fair!” Liza looked at me and immediately answered, without any ironic facial expression or syllable of self-importance: “He invented me.” Then she took Kander’s hand in hers and told me the story of how they met, of how she heard a girl singing a song and inquired about its authorship, how she asked to meet the then-unknown Kander and his writing partner Fred Ebb and how she found herself walking in on the very day they were working on Flora the Red Menace, the musical that would turn Kander and Ebb into household names and Liza Minnelli into a superstar. “Remember that?” Liza asked, and Kander silently nodded. “I knocked on the door, they opened the door, and I was home,” said Liza. “I never left.”
Liza and Kander were joined by dancing wonder woman Chita Rivera, Cabaret mascot Joel Grey and Broadway godfather Stephen Sondheim (among others) to celebrate 50 years of arts advocacy and the career of 85-year-old composer Kander. Along with partner Ebb (who passed away in 2004), he created some of musical theater’s most famous standards: Chicago, Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman and the song “New York, New York.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/search.html?st=liza+minnelli&submit=Submit+Query

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/songwriter-john-kander-receive-dramatists-guild-fund-honor-sunday-gala-article-1.1087715?localLinksEnabled=false

Songwriter John Kander will receive Dramatists Guild Fund honor at Sunday gala 

Group marks 50th anniversary with tribute to another long-running performer

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, June 1, 2012, 8:00 AM

When the Dramatists Guild Fund honors composer John Kander at a star-studded gala Sunday, there is very likely to be one person reluctant to be there. That would be John Kander.
“It scares me to death,” says the Tony Award-winning songwriter with partner Fred Ebb of “Cabaret,” “Chicago” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” “I guess I’m not the world’s most spotlight-oriented person.”
The Dramatists Guild Fund is the public charity arm of the Dramatists Guild of America, which aids and nurtures writers for the theater. The fund is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and chose Kander to honor since he is also marking his half-century of creating art.
The Sunday gala at the Mandarin Oriental New York hotel is slated to feature performances and tributes from Liza Minnelli, Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Stockard Channing, Joel Grey, Christie Brinkley, Rob Marshall, Susan Stroman, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba and Joshua Henry.
Fellow writers Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz and Terrence McNally also are expected to attend, and Jon Cryer, the star of “Two and a Half Men,” will host. Tickets start at $500.
Kander, who just turned 85, didn’t stopped working after Ebb’s death in 2004 — not by a long shot. His and Ebb’s last musical, “The Scottsboro Boys,” received 12 Tony Award nominations in 2011, and Kander for the past few years has collaborated with 34-year-old lyricist Greg Pierce.
Their haunting musical “The Landing,” now being developed Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre with David Hyde Pierce, features three distinct stories performed by an ensemble of four.
“I guess that has been a rejuvenating process, because it’s the first person whom I’ve worked with on a real basis since Fred,” says Kander. “It’s a whole new experience. I’m enjoying it a lot.”
Kander says he doesn’t know any details on the Dramatists Guild gala, and wants to keep it that way.
He suspects old friends will be present.
“I’m very touched to be honored by the Dramatists Guild, which is an organization that means a great deal to me. But I kind of wish it was about somebody else,” said the songwriter who shuns the spotlight.
He says he may try to hide under the table.
“He can’t,” says Minnelli. “I’m sitting next to him.”
The Associated Press

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/songwriter-john-kander-receive-dramatists-guild-fund-honor-sunday-gala-article-1.1087715#ixzz1wYSFl9cf