Liza Minnelli - LIZA'S BACK

VIVA REVITA-LIZA

In show business, as in a shipwreck, the key to survival is simply hanging in there. And the adorable LIZA MINNELLI has really hung in there. Like Elaine Stritch, she's a showbiz survivor for the ages. Minnelli would have kept the Titanic afloat. Still, at the Beacon Theater Friday night for the start of a brief New York engagement, "Liza's Back," the veteran performer seemed at first as though she wasn't going to make it.

The show, produced by Minnelli's new husband, David Gest, is rather tacky around the edges . . . and also slightly tacky in the center. The orchestra is pretty good, but the dozen dancers around Minnelli don't have much to do. Appropriately, they don't do it particularly well. Yet make no mistake about it, this was a triumphant homecoming for her. I spotted Minnelli's own jazz dance teacher, the famed Luigi, in the front row and idly wondered what he made of the show. (He cheered along with everyone else.)

When she first came on, she looked suspiciously like an accident waiting to happen, but by the end she was transformed by some miracle into the effulgent and youthful Minnelli and had the audience transfixed and swinging on her heartstrings. Though Minnelli apparently has lost 90 pounds since New York last saw her nearly three years ago at the Palace, she was risking a lot to begin the evening in a slinky, wispy little beaded black number. She came out looking, and even sounding, nervous.

But after singing to us that "Liza's back from AA and she's OK," doing an unfortunate rap number based on "Liza with a Z" performed with the hip-hop artist called Little Leroy, and revving up a few numbers such as "Cry," this seemed a new Liza, re-invented with more sentiment than sass. Then, slowly, her program stirred itself like a sleeping giant. The sass was back. And so was Liza. She threw her legs astride, tossed back her head (topped with a becomingly gamine mop) and began drawing on the lovefest exhalations of the crowd as if it were oxygen. Spurred on by a few nicely calculated ad-libs, the lady started to give.

Just before the intermission, she paid unspoken but deeply sung homage to Ethel Merman with "Some People," then to Mary Martin in "Never-Never Land," which suddenly segued into - and this must be a Minnelli first - a few bars of "Over the Rainbow." At the end of the song, she cried out: "Thanks, Momma!" And we weren't in Kansas anymore.

After the intermission, Minnelli returned revitalized. She swung and BELTED into her own special Broadway world - that glam playground built for her by her minstrels, John Kander and Fred Ebb - with a Sinatra-like energy and grace. But first she gave a heartfelt rendering of Burton Lane's "What Did I Have That I Don't Have Now" from "On A Clear Day," a dazzling, steam-heated account of "Rose's Turn" from Jule Styne's "Gypsy" and a sequence of numbers from "Cabaret," starting with "Mein Herr," which Kander and Ebb wrote specially for her in the movie.

Now the audience was totally hers. They rose to their feet - out of a kind of respect, and, yes, an odd kind of love, but also excitement. It caught and flared. She appeared to end with "Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum, Come to the Cabaret." But we old chums knew that she couldn't have concluded like that, that she needed to sing, here of all places, "New York, New York."

We were right. The lady obliged. She seemed to have sweated off the years, perspiration bouncing from her like a dancer or prizefighter. She made another return, to sing a cappella, "I'll Be Seeing You," in a voice markedly stronger than that with which she had arrived.

Minnelli, gleaming with real joy, had survived again. The ritual was over. The circle was completed. There was nothing left to do but cheer.

by Clive Barnes

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Susan Granger's review of "LIZA'S BACK" (Beacon Theater in New York City)

Liza Minnelli is INDEED back. She's a survivor and a gift - a force of nature whose show, miraculously, seems to rise far above the sum of its parts. There are, of course, highlights and most memorable moments but, above all, it's the consummate skill of Liza, as a performer, that distinguishes this night of theater. You've simply gotta love her! Watching Liza is nourishment for the soul. Perhaps it's a conceit to say Liza is Everywoman - but she is. She manages to encapsulate within her gaminesque persona the hopes and dreams, fears and disappointments and, above all, the essential human fragility that is common to us all. She gives it body. She gives it voice. She radiates an indomitable spirit and love of life that is contagious. The audience feels this on a visceral, deeply emotional level - and, somehow, develops a deep kinship to this woman most of us don't know - yet feel we know intimately. The Liza Legend, of course, begins with her mother, Judy Garland. The delicate quaver in Liza's voice, those great legs and her endearing vulnerability evoke an undeniable nostalgia. But then there's the energy, the enthusiasm, the pizzazz and the billion-dollar smile that's Liza's exclusive property - plus two new hips and a new knee! Liza pays tribute to her husband, talented producer/director David Gest, as the man who saved her life - and those of us who have been following her trials and tribulations for years know just what she's talking about. Her "Gypsy" and "Cabaret" numbers brought the house down, particularly as she promises, "When I die, I'm NOT going like Elsie!" "New York, New York" got a thunderous ovation. LIZA's BACK! is a triumph!

PROGRAM OF SONGS:

ACT I

Yes.
Family Affair.
Something Wonderful.
Liza With A Z (Rap version)
Crying Medley: Cry. / Don't Cry Out Loud./ Cryin'
City Lights.
Don't Smoke In Bed.
I Believe You. (with gospel choir, not sung alone)
Some People.
Never Never Land./ Over The Rainbow

ACT II:

What Did I Have I Don't Have Now?
Rose's Turn. (from "Gypsy")
Mein Herr.
Money Money.
Maybe This Time.
Cabaret.
But The World Goes 'Round...
New York, New York.
I'll Be Seeing You. (Acapella)

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