Music Review
Let’s Be Friends and Showstoppers
Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming on Wednesday at Town Hall in Manhattan. The two performed a set that included the Adele hit “Someone Like You.”
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: March 14, 2013
A legend and her charming squire: that would describe Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming on Wednesday evening at Town Hall in the first part of a two-evening celebration of Ms. Minnelli’s 67th birthday (last Tuesday).
“I’m 12,” Ms. Minnelli remarked at one point late in the show, then briefly lapsed into baby talk.
And in a way she is. Anyone who has followed Ms. Minnelli’s career is aware that from the moment she was born, she has lived inside a show-business bubble where time warps and reality bends. But life happens anyway, and in another sense Ms. Minnelli, who has endured all manner of personal travails, has lived at least nine lives and emerged with her spirit intact and her urge to perform undiminished. What else would she do?
The show had two musical directors (Lance Horne for Mr. Cumming and Billy Stritch for Ms. Minnelli) leading a pop-jazz ensemble.
Over the decades Ms. Minnelli has performed with a long list of younger friends and protégés, of whom Mr. Cumming, 48, is the latest and one of the most gracious and talented. The story of their meeting for the first time at a performance of “Cabaret,” after which she declared, “I want us to be friends for life,” captures the eruptive spontaneity of a performer who never holds back. And that primal impulse to give everything all at once is what kept the audience entranced for much of the concert.
If Ms. Minnelli’s voice is in shambles, she can infuse an electric excitement into a Bob Fosse shoulder shrug. Nowadays she relies on body language and acting to see her through. The strongest moment in her section of a show that opened with a long set by Mr. Cumming was a dramatically explosive rendition of Charles Aznavour’s proto-gay pride anthem, “What Makes a Man a Man.” In an era when transgender issues are a hot topic, it no longer sounds like a musty relic.
The link between Ms. Minnelli and Mr. Cumming is not only “Cabaret,” in which Mr. Cumming played the master of ceremonies in the 1998 Broadway revival, but also their shared vaudevillian expertise. Mr. Cumming knows how to slink across the stage while wearing an insinuating grin that conveys a blush-worthy concupiscence.
High points of his ballad-heavy set included a tender “Falling Slowly,” from “Once”; Adele’s “Someone Like You”; and a mash-up of Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello’s “I Still Have That Other Girl” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Losing My Mind.” A typical performance built from a near whisper into a feverish cry. In a hundred subtle ways, Mr. Cumming took care of his vulnerable, brassy “friend for life” with a courtly protectiveness and empathy.
The engagement concluded on Thursday.
A version of this review appeared in print on March 15, 2013, on page C12 of the New York edition with the headline: Let’s Be Friends And Showstoppers.
Portrait of Friendship! Tony-Winning Pals Liza Minnelli & Alan Cumming Get Set to Wow the Crowd at Town Hall
Photos By Broadway.com Staff March 14, 2013 - 12:17PM
What a night! Tony-winning pals Liza Minnelli and Alan Cumming took the stage at Town Hall on March 13 (the day after Liza's 67th birthday) for the first of two cabaret-style concerts, Liza & Alan and the crowd went wild. The stars swapped numbers from Cabaret—he sang “Mein Heir”; she sang “Wilkommen”—Liza belted out some of her beloved hits and Alan chose an eclectic mix of songs. Minnelli and Cumming first performed together in the summer of 2012 on Fire Island, and their act is definitely ready for the big time. Broadway.com’s Bruce Glikas captured a lovely portrait of the friends before their Town Hall debut. Bravo to an inspired pairing, and see you on Broadway soon, Alan, in Macbeth—and in your new Broadway.com video blog The Cumming Attraction.
Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming turn friendship into hit show
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/entertainment-us-lizaminelli-idUSBRE92D07P20130314
Singer Liza Minnelli and actor Alan Cumming perform during their one night only performance in New York, March 13, 2013.
"Liza coming to Fire Island - can you imagine? It was like a papal visit," Cumming said, recalling the friends' two shows that spawned the sold out shows at Town Hall on Wednesday and Thursday.
"I think this is probably the first time that a show has transferred from Cherry Grove, Fire Island to Broadway," Cumming said, referring to the almost exclusively gay beach town where the friends appeared during a July heat wave, cooling down between sets in a walk-in refrigerator.
The concert served as a "Cabaret" reunion of sorts, as Minnelli, still closely associated with her Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film of the iconic musical, and Cumming, who won a Tony award as the emcee in the acclaimed Broadway revival more than two decades later, sang duets including the title song, "Cabaret."
But the pair toyed with sexual identity, as Minnelli, who has a huge gay following, and Cumming, who is married to his male partner, switched their "Cabaret" roles - she sang "Willkommen," usually sung by the emcee, while he sang "Mein Herr," one of Sally's big numbers.
Minnelli's husky intonations contrasted dramatically with Cumming's reedy tenor for their duets, which were augmented by little waltzes and plenty of banter and embracing.
"We're just crazy about each other," Minnelli told Reuters after the show. "It felt very intimate, like being with a bunch of friends."
Before the show, producer Daniel Nardicio said "It had always surprised me that no producer had thought to put these two long-time friends on stage together ... That's what people saw on the stage on Fire Island - two good friends having fun. I dare say that this show is a celebration of friendship."
"I never know what he's going to do. And he never knows what I'm going to do," Minnelli reflected about the concert's free-wheeling vibe.
Still, she noted, "It's a very well-paced show," adding, "Was it OK?", mirroring her on-stage apparent insecurity as she asked an audience of adoring fans: "I hope I'm doing OK for you?"
By all accounts it was more than OK, as the crowd leapt to its feet en masse to give Minnelli a standing ovation after nearly each one of her songs, which included "But The World Goes Round" and one of her signature songs, "New York, New York," as well as "Teach Me Tonight," "Liza with a Z" from the television special of the same name, and the novelty tune, "Ring Them Bells" from the same program, which won her an Emmy.
Minnelli, who has triumphed as a singer, actress and dancer on both stage and film, much like her legendary mother Judy Garland, said she doesn't hew to one particular form.
"It's all one thing - when I'm singing I'm acting, and when I'm dancing I'm acting," she said.
Before her set, Cumming, who first met Minnelli when she saw him in the "Cabaret" revival, sang an impassioned version of "Losing My Mind" from "Follies" as well as what he called a mashup of Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" and Adele's "Someone Like You," among other songs.
The night ended with Cumming leading the sold out crowd in serenading Minnelli with "Happy Birthday," in honor of her 67th birthday on Tuesday.
Minnelli said she didn't know about taking their show further. "We really haven't even thought about it. I guess it would depend on scheduling," she said, before saying again how terrifically close the two stars are.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - By merely striding onto a stage, Liza Minnelli transformed a Manhattan concert hall into a cabaret on Wednesday, as the legendary entertainer teamed up with Broadway veteran Alan Cumming for the first night of a two-night gig reprising a show the pair put on last summer at a Fire Island nightclub."Liza coming to Fire Island - can you imagine? It was like a papal visit," Cumming said, recalling the friends' two shows that spawned the sold out shows at Town Hall on Wednesday and Thursday.
"I think this is probably the first time that a show has transferred from Cherry Grove, Fire Island to Broadway," Cumming said, referring to the almost exclusively gay beach town where the friends appeared during a July heat wave, cooling down between sets in a walk-in refrigerator.
The concert served as a "Cabaret" reunion of sorts, as Minnelli, still closely associated with her Oscar-winning performance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film of the iconic musical, and Cumming, who won a Tony award as the emcee in the acclaimed Broadway revival more than two decades later, sang duets including the title song, "Cabaret."
But the pair toyed with sexual identity, as Minnelli, who has a huge gay following, and Cumming, who is married to his male partner, switched their "Cabaret" roles - she sang "Willkommen," usually sung by the emcee, while he sang "Mein Herr," one of Sally's big numbers.
Minnelli's husky intonations contrasted dramatically with Cumming's reedy tenor for their duets, which were augmented by little waltzes and plenty of banter and embracing.
"We're just crazy about each other," Minnelli told Reuters after the show. "It felt very intimate, like being with a bunch of friends."
Before the show, producer Daniel Nardicio said "It had always surprised me that no producer had thought to put these two long-time friends on stage together ... That's what people saw on the stage on Fire Island - two good friends having fun. I dare say that this show is a celebration of friendship."
"I never know what he's going to do. And he never knows what I'm going to do," Minnelli reflected about the concert's free-wheeling vibe.
Still, she noted, "It's a very well-paced show," adding, "Was it OK?", mirroring her on-stage apparent insecurity as she asked an audience of adoring fans: "I hope I'm doing OK for you?"
By all accounts it was more than OK, as the crowd leapt to its feet en masse to give Minnelli a standing ovation after nearly each one of her songs, which included "But The World Goes Round" and one of her signature songs, "New York, New York," as well as "Teach Me Tonight," "Liza with a Z" from the television special of the same name, and the novelty tune, "Ring Them Bells" from the same program, which won her an Emmy.
Minnelli, who has triumphed as a singer, actress and dancer on both stage and film, much like her legendary mother Judy Garland, said she doesn't hew to one particular form.
"It's all one thing - when I'm singing I'm acting, and when I'm dancing I'm acting," she said.
Before her set, Cumming, who first met Minnelli when she saw him in the "Cabaret" revival, sang an impassioned version of "Losing My Mind" from "Follies" as well as what he called a mashup of Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory" and Adele's "Someone Like You," among other songs.
The night ended with Cumming leading the sold out crowd in serenading Minnelli with "Happy Birthday," in honor of her 67th birthday on Tuesday.
Minnelli said she didn't know about taking their show further. "We really haven't even thought about it. I guess it would depend on scheduling," she said, before saying again how terrifically close the two stars are.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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