LIZA
1974 Concert
Winter Garden Theatre, New York, NY
Winter Garden Theatre, New York, NY
Opening Date
Closing Date Performances |
January 6, 1974
January 26, 1974 23 |
THE SHUBERT ORGANIZATION
in association with RON DELSENER
presents
LIZA MINNELLI
with
PAM BARLOW SPENCER HENDERSON
JIMMY RODDY SHARON WYLIE
Written by
FRED EBB
Original Musical Material by
FRED EBB & JOHN KANDER
Lighting Designed by
JULES FISHER |
Audio Design
PHIL RAMONE |
Sound by
STAN MILLER |
Musical Coordinator
MARVIN HAMLISCH |
Musical Conductor
JACK FRENCH |
Presentation Coordinated by
BILL LIBERMAN
Choreographed by
BOB FOSSE & RON LEWIS
Directed by
BOB FOSSE
BILL LIBERMAN
Choreographed by
BOB FOSSE & RON LEWIS
Directed by
BOB FOSSE
ABOUT THE SHOW
"Every song means something…"
© 2012 www.officiallizaminnelli.com
© 2012 www.officiallizaminnelli.com
The 27-year-old dynamo had sold out an entire month’s run of 24 concerts in 36 hours, setting a house record for the Winter Garden Theater.
The show itself, which opened on January 6, was simply titled LIZA.
Like CABARET, LIZA, written by long time collaborator Fred Ebb, was directed by Bob Fosse, who choreographed it with Ron Lewis. Marvin Hamlisch served as musical director, and the celebrated songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb supplied Minnelli with new songs for the shows.
“The thing about doing a show like LIZA is that every song means something,” Minnelli reflects. “Fred and John were so brilliant at building a show, plus I had Marvin, so we tried all kinds of different rundowns and finally came up with what you hear on the album, and thank God it worked! But you keep trying, and don’t get satisfied with anything but the best.”
She pauses, then concludes: “It brings back so many memories. I always feel like I’ve never done anything. It’s true! So to have this come out, and to be reminded of how it was and how it was received, it’s just lovely!”
The LIZA shows marked a triumphant return to Broadway for Minnelli. She was already a veteran of the Great White Way and had won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for FLORA THE RED MENACE. These shows also followed a remarkable rush of career milestones including her Oscar in 1973 for her performance in CABARET and her Emmy that year for her LIZA WITH A "Z" TV special.
Opening night guests for LIZA included her father Vincente Minnelli and sister Lorna Luft, Halston, Diane Von Furstenberg, Neil Simon, New York’s Mayor Abe Beame, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Dudley Moore, Kay Thompson, Ben Vereen and Kitty Carlisle Hart. The after-party was held at The Rainbow Grill in Rockefeller Center, and Minnelli was later rewarded with a Special Tony Award for “adding luster to the Broadway season.”
“It was thrilling,” Minnelli recalls. “I remember opening night with Bobby [Fosse] and Marvin [Hamlisch] and all the people I looked up to and went to because they were the best. And it was so exciting to go to that theater every night and walk through that stage door and up the stairs and see how excited everybody else was, because it really was a new thing to do a Broadway concert show.”
The show itself, which opened on January 6, was simply titled LIZA.
Like CABARET, LIZA, written by long time collaborator Fred Ebb, was directed by Bob Fosse, who choreographed it with Ron Lewis. Marvin Hamlisch served as musical director, and the celebrated songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb supplied Minnelli with new songs for the shows.
“The thing about doing a show like LIZA is that every song means something,” Minnelli reflects. “Fred and John were so brilliant at building a show, plus I had Marvin, so we tried all kinds of different rundowns and finally came up with what you hear on the album, and thank God it worked! But you keep trying, and don’t get satisfied with anything but the best.”
She pauses, then concludes: “It brings back so many memories. I always feel like I’ve never done anything. It’s true! So to have this come out, and to be reminded of how it was and how it was received, it’s just lovely!”
The LIZA shows marked a triumphant return to Broadway for Minnelli. She was already a veteran of the Great White Way and had won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for FLORA THE RED MENACE. These shows also followed a remarkable rush of career milestones including her Oscar in 1973 for her performance in CABARET and her Emmy that year for her LIZA WITH A "Z" TV special.
Opening night guests for LIZA included her father Vincente Minnelli and sister Lorna Luft, Halston, Diane Von Furstenberg, Neil Simon, New York’s Mayor Abe Beame, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Dudley Moore, Kay Thompson, Ben Vereen and Kitty Carlisle Hart. The after-party was held at The Rainbow Grill in Rockefeller Center, and Minnelli was later rewarded with a Special Tony Award for “adding luster to the Broadway season.”
“It was thrilling,” Minnelli recalls. “I remember opening night with Bobby [Fosse] and Marvin [Hamlisch] and all the people I looked up to and went to because they were the best. And it was so exciting to go to that theater every night and walk through that stage door and up the stairs and see how excited everybody else was, because it really was a new thing to do a Broadway concert show.”
"90 minutes of song, dance, and knock-'em-dead pizzazz"
© www.cabaret54.com
© www.cabaret54.com
The full engagement ran twenty four performances from January 6 - 26, 1974, plus a special midnight performance on Friday, January 25th, for the Actor's Fund. That performance was videotaped on black and white film, shot with two cameras (much as LIZA WITH A "Z" was). The tape can currently be viewed at the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive; a division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Liza agreed to pay half the cost after she, Fred Ebb and John Kander taped a 50-minute interview on January 14, 1974. The January 25th filmed performance was also made part of the Stanley Prager Memorial Collection, part of Lincoln Center's Library. There were also silent color home movies made during this engagement that exist as well. This special performance was a benefit that raised more than $20,000 for the Actor's Fund, and at the end of the show, Liza was presented with an Actor's Fund citation as a thank you for her contributions from drama critic Clive Barnes. It was a star-studded night, and Liza was overwhelmed by all the applause.
Liza boasted that the Winter Garden shows would be an event never before seen in the history of theater. It would be 90 minutes of song, dance, and knock-'em-dead pizzazz. It would be sheer energetic entertainment. There would be no opening act; simply Liza, live. It would be her first Broadway one-woman show.
Within 36 hours of going on-sale, the tickets for the entire three-week engagement sold out, and grossed a record $413,815, of which Liza received $300,000 (which was more money than any other entertainer had ever earned at the theater). Within days, scalpers were selling the $15 dollar tickets (for the best seats!) for skyrocketing profits, sometimes as much as $200 a piece; an unheard of prospect in those days. As usual, the tickets were mis-printed and beared the name "Lisa Minelli", and have since become collector's items.
Given today's inflated cost of concert tickets, $15 doesn't sound like very much, but back in 1974, many people -- including Douglas Watts of the New York Daily News, found the $15 price tag to be "outrageously high." (In 1977, THE ACT would set another theatre precedent with its top-priced $25 tickets.) Tom Buckley wrote in the New York Times: "The show is generating the kind of electricity in this energy-starved theater season that can't be provided by all the oil of Araby. For one thing, it will be Miss Minnelli's first appearance here since her Academy Award for CABARET and her Emmy for her 1972 television special made her an international star. For another, she returns as a hometown girl who made good. Ever since she decided in her mid-teens to seek a career in the theater, the city has been her home. Most of her oldest and closest friends and advisors live here." To which Liza responded, "It's a terrific city. it's still the Big Apple. I like it better every time I come back."
Liza wanted to make certain that nothing would go wrong with this show. She spent weeks rehearsing, and surrounded herself, onstage and off, with only her most trusted of friends. Jack French, who'd worked with Liza since 1966, would conduct the 28-piece orchestra; Deanna Wenble would handle the scores of lighting cues; Marvin Hamlisch would serve as musical coordinator; Fred Ebb would write the show; Nancy Barr would help handle Liza's quick costume changes; and Bob Fosse would direct.
The show certainly looked like a winner. This was also the first Manhattan stage appearance Liza would be making since FLORA, THE RED MENACE nine years earlier. A gigantic marquee billboard emblazoned with giant red letters screaming "Liza" spanned the top of the Winter Garden Theater, running almost one entire city block in length. The graphic lettering by Joe Eula was simple and effective. (Eula would also later create the advertising motif for THE ACT.)
The anticipation of the show was mounting throughout the city, especially since another star, Bette Midler, had opened to highly praised reviews just a month earlier. In her anxious nature, Liza worried that Bette's act might outshine hers. Not wanting to be upstaged, she purchased tickets to the December 23rd performance at the Palace Theater - the closing night of Bette's show - and in that evening, Liza's fears were put to rest. While Liza loved Bette's campiness and polished vulgarity, she knew that both their respective shows were two completely different species. There would be no comparison between them.
The show opened on Sunday, January 6, 1974, and Liza and Fred Ebb went through the same pep talk they always had since the beginning of their working together since 1965 at the Shoreham Hotel. Ebb said, "What I always tell her is you can't presume on audiences. You can't let yourself think success is your due; you've got to earn it; your energy level and your desire to please must always remain high." She had nothing to worry about; those opening night ticketholders were rewarded with a Liza show that overwhelmed them. She blasted the audience with her high-octane opening number, "Say Yes", followed by a singing and dancing experience that delighted all. The performance was a breathless display of her versatility and diverse facets of her talent. For starters, like Judy, she was obsessed with choreographing every movement, every song, every setting, every step, and every element of the performance. That attention to detail is crucial for producing a quality performance that stays consistent show after show. She also insisted on the best production people she could get and only those who understood her.
Some of the first-nighters included Betsy Palmer, Dudley Moore, Vincente Minnelli, Lorna and Sid Luft, Kay Thompson, Fred Ebb and John Kander, Bob Fosse, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Ben Vereen, Henry Kissinger, Halston, Diane Von Furstenberg, Neil Simon, and Mayor Beame of New York.
From start to finish, Liza was a breathtaking powerhouse of talent. Each number was highly stylized and vocalized. However, much to the chagrin of the theatre afficianados, Liza and her quartet of dancers committed a major musical theatre faux pas by lip-syncing to several songs, including "Natural Man". (She would commit the same faux pas again three years later, to great criticism, when she starred in THE ACT.)
"We decided to lip-sync because we had no other choice," Liza explained. "There were numbers people wanted to really see -- especially 'Ring Them Bells' -- and I just couldn't do that huh-huh, panting kind of singing as I danced." On Saturday nights during the engagement, there were two shows a night; one at 7:30 pm and one at 10:30 pm. On Sunday nights, there were also two performances; a matinee and an evening show. An audio tape exists of one of the Saturday night performances. She even got down on one knee and sang "My Mammy", which hadn't been done there since Al Jolson had done it. (He would've regarded it as chutzpah.) The audiences thought it was terrific. The similarities of the old star of the past and the young one of the present weren't lost on the audience; a sprinkling of whom had seen the original artist performing that same exact number and could attest to the fact that the amount of applause in 1974 wasn't too different from that heard there 45 years earlier.
While there were modern songs in the show such as "Cabaret" and "I Can See Clearly Now", a good deal of the repertoire was from the 'Mammy' era of songs, like "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". Over the course of the evening, with its single intermission, Liza never seemed to stop. She pummeled patrons with song after song, dance after dance. She occasionally had to sit on a stool to catch her breath, but she never lost the frantic pacing that is so ingrained in her performing personality. She utilized clever banter to bridge the song numbers and to assure the audience that although she may be sweating, she was really having a good time and that she was happiest whenever she was pleasing an audience. Par usual, she sold herself to her fullest ability.
Following that opening night performance, more than 300 people packed into the Rainbow Room Grill, where Vincente Minnelli, Columbia Records and the Shubert Organization hosted an Italian buffet in Liza's honor. She arrived on the arm of her father a little after 10:30 pm, looking every bit the woman of the hour. She was dressed in a fox jacket, wide-brimmed polka-dot Borsalino hat, and a white tuxedo jacket, which hid her black and white polka-dot pantsuit. For the occasion, Liza's ensemble was designed by Jacques Bellini; not Halston, her usual designer (who was also at the event). When Liza walked in, she looked slightly startled and exclaimed, "You're all super. Thank you very much!"
Liza boasted that the Winter Garden shows would be an event never before seen in the history of theater. It would be 90 minutes of song, dance, and knock-'em-dead pizzazz. It would be sheer energetic entertainment. There would be no opening act; simply Liza, live. It would be her first Broadway one-woman show.
Within 36 hours of going on-sale, the tickets for the entire three-week engagement sold out, and grossed a record $413,815, of which Liza received $300,000 (which was more money than any other entertainer had ever earned at the theater). Within days, scalpers were selling the $15 dollar tickets (for the best seats!) for skyrocketing profits, sometimes as much as $200 a piece; an unheard of prospect in those days. As usual, the tickets were mis-printed and beared the name "Lisa Minelli", and have since become collector's items.
Given today's inflated cost of concert tickets, $15 doesn't sound like very much, but back in 1974, many people -- including Douglas Watts of the New York Daily News, found the $15 price tag to be "outrageously high." (In 1977, THE ACT would set another theatre precedent with its top-priced $25 tickets.) Tom Buckley wrote in the New York Times: "The show is generating the kind of electricity in this energy-starved theater season that can't be provided by all the oil of Araby. For one thing, it will be Miss Minnelli's first appearance here since her Academy Award for CABARET and her Emmy for her 1972 television special made her an international star. For another, she returns as a hometown girl who made good. Ever since she decided in her mid-teens to seek a career in the theater, the city has been her home. Most of her oldest and closest friends and advisors live here." To which Liza responded, "It's a terrific city. it's still the Big Apple. I like it better every time I come back."
Liza wanted to make certain that nothing would go wrong with this show. She spent weeks rehearsing, and surrounded herself, onstage and off, with only her most trusted of friends. Jack French, who'd worked with Liza since 1966, would conduct the 28-piece orchestra; Deanna Wenble would handle the scores of lighting cues; Marvin Hamlisch would serve as musical coordinator; Fred Ebb would write the show; Nancy Barr would help handle Liza's quick costume changes; and Bob Fosse would direct.
The show certainly looked like a winner. This was also the first Manhattan stage appearance Liza would be making since FLORA, THE RED MENACE nine years earlier. A gigantic marquee billboard emblazoned with giant red letters screaming "Liza" spanned the top of the Winter Garden Theater, running almost one entire city block in length. The graphic lettering by Joe Eula was simple and effective. (Eula would also later create the advertising motif for THE ACT.)
The anticipation of the show was mounting throughout the city, especially since another star, Bette Midler, had opened to highly praised reviews just a month earlier. In her anxious nature, Liza worried that Bette's act might outshine hers. Not wanting to be upstaged, she purchased tickets to the December 23rd performance at the Palace Theater - the closing night of Bette's show - and in that evening, Liza's fears were put to rest. While Liza loved Bette's campiness and polished vulgarity, she knew that both their respective shows were two completely different species. There would be no comparison between them.
The show opened on Sunday, January 6, 1974, and Liza and Fred Ebb went through the same pep talk they always had since the beginning of their working together since 1965 at the Shoreham Hotel. Ebb said, "What I always tell her is you can't presume on audiences. You can't let yourself think success is your due; you've got to earn it; your energy level and your desire to please must always remain high." She had nothing to worry about; those opening night ticketholders were rewarded with a Liza show that overwhelmed them. She blasted the audience with her high-octane opening number, "Say Yes", followed by a singing and dancing experience that delighted all. The performance was a breathless display of her versatility and diverse facets of her talent. For starters, like Judy, she was obsessed with choreographing every movement, every song, every setting, every step, and every element of the performance. That attention to detail is crucial for producing a quality performance that stays consistent show after show. She also insisted on the best production people she could get and only those who understood her.
Some of the first-nighters included Betsy Palmer, Dudley Moore, Vincente Minnelli, Lorna and Sid Luft, Kay Thompson, Fred Ebb and John Kander, Bob Fosse, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Ben Vereen, Henry Kissinger, Halston, Diane Von Furstenberg, Neil Simon, and Mayor Beame of New York.
From start to finish, Liza was a breathtaking powerhouse of talent. Each number was highly stylized and vocalized. However, much to the chagrin of the theatre afficianados, Liza and her quartet of dancers committed a major musical theatre faux pas by lip-syncing to several songs, including "Natural Man". (She would commit the same faux pas again three years later, to great criticism, when she starred in THE ACT.)
"We decided to lip-sync because we had no other choice," Liza explained. "There were numbers people wanted to really see -- especially 'Ring Them Bells' -- and I just couldn't do that huh-huh, panting kind of singing as I danced." On Saturday nights during the engagement, there were two shows a night; one at 7:30 pm and one at 10:30 pm. On Sunday nights, there were also two performances; a matinee and an evening show. An audio tape exists of one of the Saturday night performances. She even got down on one knee and sang "My Mammy", which hadn't been done there since Al Jolson had done it. (He would've regarded it as chutzpah.) The audiences thought it was terrific. The similarities of the old star of the past and the young one of the present weren't lost on the audience; a sprinkling of whom had seen the original artist performing that same exact number and could attest to the fact that the amount of applause in 1974 wasn't too different from that heard there 45 years earlier.
While there were modern songs in the show such as "Cabaret" and "I Can See Clearly Now", a good deal of the repertoire was from the 'Mammy' era of songs, like "Shine On Harvest Moon" and "Bye Bye Blackbird". Over the course of the evening, with its single intermission, Liza never seemed to stop. She pummeled patrons with song after song, dance after dance. She occasionally had to sit on a stool to catch her breath, but she never lost the frantic pacing that is so ingrained in her performing personality. She utilized clever banter to bridge the song numbers and to assure the audience that although she may be sweating, she was really having a good time and that she was happiest whenever she was pleasing an audience. Par usual, she sold herself to her fullest ability.
Following that opening night performance, more than 300 people packed into the Rainbow Room Grill, where Vincente Minnelli, Columbia Records and the Shubert Organization hosted an Italian buffet in Liza's honor. She arrived on the arm of her father a little after 10:30 pm, looking every bit the woman of the hour. She was dressed in a fox jacket, wide-brimmed polka-dot Borsalino hat, and a white tuxedo jacket, which hid her black and white polka-dot pantsuit. For the occasion, Liza's ensemble was designed by Jacques Bellini; not Halston, her usual designer (who was also at the event). When Liza walked in, she looked slightly startled and exclaimed, "You're all super. Thank you very much!"
Musical Numbers
ACT I
OVERTURE (Instrumental) (John Kander, Fred Ebb / Johnny Nash) YES (John Kander, Fred Ebb) YOU AND I (Stevie Wonder) MEANTIME (Robert Allen, Al Stillman) SHINE ON HARVEST MOON (Nora Bayes, Jack Norworth) LIZA WITH A "Z" (John Kander, Fred Ebb) EXACTLY LIKE ME (John Kander, Fred Ebb) IF YOU COULD READ MY MIND / COME BACK TO ME (Gordon Lightfoot / Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner) IT WAS A GOOD TIME (Michael "Mike" Curb, Mack David, Maurice-Alexis Jarre) I'M ONE OF THE SMART ONES (John Kander, Fred Ebb) NATURAL MAN (Bobby Hebb, Sandy Baron) I GOTCHA (Joe Tex) RING THEM BELLS (John Kander, Fred Ebb) |
ACT II
BYE BYE BLACKBIRD (Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon) A QUIET THING (John Kander, Fred Ebb) ANYWHERE YOU ARE / I BELIEVE YOU (John Kander, Fred Ebb) THERE IS A TIME (LE TEMPS) (Charles Aznavour, Jeff Davis, Gene Lees) THE CIRCLE (Edith Piaf, Fred Ebb) AND I IN MY CHAIR (ET MOI DANS MON COIN) (Charles Aznavour, Fred Ebb, David Newburge) MY MAMMY (Walter Donaldson, Joe Young, Sam M. Lewis) I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW (Johnny Nash) MAYBE THIS TIME (John Kander, Fred Ebb) CABARET (John Kander, Fred Ebb) CURTAIN BOWS (Instrumental) (John Kander, Fred Ebb) IT HAD TO BE YOU (Isham Jones, Gus Kahn) MY SHINING HOUR / YES (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer / John Kander, Fred Ebb) |
Recordings
A live recording of the show was released by Columbia Records in April 1974 under the title "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden".
The show was recorded live at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, on various nights of the run. The LP does not include the entire concert, several numbers were left off the recording. The running order of the songs was also changed drastically.
The show was recorded live at the Winter Garden Theatre, New York, on various nights of the run. The LP does not include the entire concert, several numbers were left off the recording. The running order of the songs was also changed drastically.
LIZA MINNELLI - LIVE AT THE WINTER GARDEN
(1974) 01. Overture (Instrumental) 02. If You Could Read My Mind / Come Back To Me 03. Shine On Harvest Moon 04. Exactly Like Me 05. The Circle 06. More Than You Know 07. I'm One Of The Smart Ones 08. Natural Man 09. I Can See Clearly Now 10. And I In My Chair (Et Moi Dans Mon Coin) 11. There Is A Time (Le Temps) 12. A Quiet Thing 13. Anywhere You Are / I Believe You 14. Cabaret / Curtain Bows |
Masterworks Broadway re-released the album on CD on May 8, 2012 as part of their "Legends Of Broadway" series. The reissue was produced by David Foil and remastered by Mark Wilder at Battery Studios and features a new cover artwork. The CD contains three previously unreleased tracks.
LIZA MINNELLI - LIVE AT THE WINTER GARDEN
(2012 reissue) 01. Overture (Instrumental) 02. If You Could Read My Mind / Come Back To Me 03. Shine On Harvest Moon 04. Exactly Like Me 05. The Circle 06. More Than You Know 07. I'm One Of The Smart Ones 08. Natural Man 09. I Can See Clearly Now 10. And I In My Chair (Et Moi Dans Mon Coin) 11. There Is A Time (Le Temps) 12. A Quiet Thing 13. Anywhere You Are / I Believe You 14. Cabaret / Curtain Bows 15. You And I * 16. It Had To Be You * 17. My Shining Hour / Yes * * Bonus Tracks (previously unreleased) |
The album was quickly released by Columbia Records in April 1974, but had to be withdrawn from the market due to contractual conflicts over Liza's performance of songs from the CABARET film score, which were available on the then-current soundtrack album. Only pirated versions of the album have circulated since.
Masterworks Broadway releases Liza Minnelli’s historic concert album "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden". The long-awaited recording is derived from the original master engineered by Phil Ramone. The concert recording includes performances from Minnelli’s truly legendary Broadway show in January 1974 as well as three recently discovered live bonus tracks that were recorded but not included on the original LP, including Stevie Wonder’s “You And I” and standards “It Had To Be You” and “My Shining Hour.”
This is the first time that the show will come out on CD and digital release.
Although the original show this album hails from was 2 hours long, only 53 minutes' worth of it ever made it to the original LP album, and 68 minutes made it onto the newer CD re-release.
The album won a Tony award for Best Personal Achievement, and it debuted on Bilbboard's Top 200 charts on May 18th, 1974, where it stayed for four weeks, peaking at number 150.
According to the CD booklet, the first of the three bonus tracks, "You And I", was recorded on January 8th, 1974, while the other two bonus tracks, "It Had To Be You" and "My Shining Hour" were recorded on February 2nd, 1974. While the booklet boasts that "all tracks recorded live at the Winter Garden Theater, New York, NY", this is actually untrue. From January 30 - February 12, 1974, Liza was performing engagements at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas... very much not the Winter Garden.
Masterworks Broadway releases Liza Minnelli’s historic concert album "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden". The long-awaited recording is derived from the original master engineered by Phil Ramone. The concert recording includes performances from Minnelli’s truly legendary Broadway show in January 1974 as well as three recently discovered live bonus tracks that were recorded but not included on the original LP, including Stevie Wonder’s “You And I” and standards “It Had To Be You” and “My Shining Hour.”
This is the first time that the show will come out on CD and digital release.
Although the original show this album hails from was 2 hours long, only 53 minutes' worth of it ever made it to the original LP album, and 68 minutes made it onto the newer CD re-release.
The album won a Tony award for Best Personal Achievement, and it debuted on Bilbboard's Top 200 charts on May 18th, 1974, where it stayed for four weeks, peaking at number 150.
According to the CD booklet, the first of the three bonus tracks, "You And I", was recorded on January 8th, 1974, while the other two bonus tracks, "It Had To Be You" and "My Shining Hour" were recorded on February 2nd, 1974. While the booklet boasts that "all tracks recorded live at the Winter Garden Theater, New York, NY", this is actually untrue. From January 30 - February 12, 1974, Liza was performing engagements at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas... very much not the Winter Garden.
About the ALBUM
"…an unforgettable evening"
Reissue producer David Foil in the CD booklet of the re-release
Reissue producer David Foil in the CD booklet of the re-release
Liza Minnelli and Broadway were made for each other. Minnelli, of course, is Hollywood royalty - not just everyone makes a film debut at the age of fourteen months (with her mother Judy Garland in IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME) - and she has an Oscar to her name, just like both of her parents. But it is on Broadway that she made perhaps her most distinctive mark, where her stage persona began to take shape and where she has returned throughout her career to rediscover her adoring public.
"Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden" captures what may be the best of those memorable visits, in January of 1974. Minnelli was already a Broadway veteran then, having won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for FLORA, THE RED MENACE, when she was 19. The show was not a hit but she was, suddenly an exuberant, irresistable, somehow fragile diva whom the world wanted to embrace. Four years later, she had her first Oscar nomination for THE STERILE CUCKOO, and in the spring of 1973 the Oscar itself for her performance in Bob Fosse's film of CABARET. She added an Emmy (for the LIZA WITH A "Z" TV special) that May.
At the crest of that incredible wave - she was all of 27 years old in January 1974 - Minnelli returned triumphantly to Broadway to hold court at the Winter Garden for a month of performances, captured on this long-available live recording. The concept was simple: "just" Liza with four dancers (two men, two women), a band and some great songs, old and new. Bob Fosse staged the show and choreographed it with Ron Lewis. Since the beginning of all their careers, Minnelli has been a virtual muse to the composer/lyricist team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, and they supplied new material for these performances.
The show was a blockbuster hit, selling out the entire month's run in one day and setting a house record for the Winer Garden Theater. In the New York Times, critic Clive Barnes rhapsodized about Minnelli's "urchin hair, big gypsy eyes, good legs, expressive hands, and a voice that can purr, whisper, snarl, and soar."
Years later, in a New York Times interview, Meryl Streep would recall discovering an important truth about performing from the Winter Garden show, which she saw when she was a student at Yale. "I learned something from watching Liza Minnelli," Streep said. "Encountering and truth-telling are the initial steps of acting. But there is a further leap to the understanding of the importance of brilliance, sparkle and excitement. 'Performing' is the final gloss."
At the end of the season, Minnelli was awarded a special Tony Award for the Winter Garden show.
Columbia Records' original April 1974 LP release of "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden" had to be withdrawn because of contractual conflicts over Minnelli's performance of songs from the CABARET score, infringing on the then-current soundtrack album. Until now, the Columbia recording was out of circulation, except in pirated versions.
Accept no substitutes: this long-awaited re-issue is derived from the original master, engineered by Phil Ramone. Included here are three tantalizing live bonus tracks from the show that were not included on the original LP but turned up amid the vast amount of live material recorded for the album - Stevie Wonder's then-new "You And I" and two glorious standards, "It Had To Be You" and "My Shining Hour."
That last title might be the best description of this unforgettable evening.
"Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden" captures what may be the best of those memorable visits, in January of 1974. Minnelli was already a Broadway veteran then, having won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for FLORA, THE RED MENACE, when she was 19. The show was not a hit but she was, suddenly an exuberant, irresistable, somehow fragile diva whom the world wanted to embrace. Four years later, she had her first Oscar nomination for THE STERILE CUCKOO, and in the spring of 1973 the Oscar itself for her performance in Bob Fosse's film of CABARET. She added an Emmy (for the LIZA WITH A "Z" TV special) that May.
At the crest of that incredible wave - she was all of 27 years old in January 1974 - Minnelli returned triumphantly to Broadway to hold court at the Winter Garden for a month of performances, captured on this long-available live recording. The concept was simple: "just" Liza with four dancers (two men, two women), a band and some great songs, old and new. Bob Fosse staged the show and choreographed it with Ron Lewis. Since the beginning of all their careers, Minnelli has been a virtual muse to the composer/lyricist team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, and they supplied new material for these performances.
The show was a blockbuster hit, selling out the entire month's run in one day and setting a house record for the Winer Garden Theater. In the New York Times, critic Clive Barnes rhapsodized about Minnelli's "urchin hair, big gypsy eyes, good legs, expressive hands, and a voice that can purr, whisper, snarl, and soar."
Years later, in a New York Times interview, Meryl Streep would recall discovering an important truth about performing from the Winter Garden show, which she saw when she was a student at Yale. "I learned something from watching Liza Minnelli," Streep said. "Encountering and truth-telling are the initial steps of acting. But there is a further leap to the understanding of the importance of brilliance, sparkle and excitement. 'Performing' is the final gloss."
At the end of the season, Minnelli was awarded a special Tony Award for the Winter Garden show.
Columbia Records' original April 1974 LP release of "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden" had to be withdrawn because of contractual conflicts over Minnelli's performance of songs from the CABARET score, infringing on the then-current soundtrack album. Until now, the Columbia recording was out of circulation, except in pirated versions.
Accept no substitutes: this long-awaited re-issue is derived from the original master, engineered by Phil Ramone. Included here are three tantalizing live bonus tracks from the show that were not included on the original LP but turned up amid the vast amount of live material recorded for the album - Stevie Wonder's then-new "You And I" and two glorious standards, "It Had To Be You" and "My Shining Hour."
That last title might be the best description of this unforgettable evening.
"Ring Them Bells: Liza Minnelli’s Triumphant 'Live at the Winter Garden' Expanded For CD Premiere"
www.theseconddisc.com
www.theseconddisc.com
Liza Minnelli turns 66 today, and could rightfully relax, look back and celebrate over six decades in show business. But the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, who made her first onscreen appearance as a baby in 1949’s MGM extravaganza IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME, has never been one to rest on her considerable laurels. Minnelli is still touring, recording and doing what she does best: entertaining, whether on the big screen (SEX AND THE CITY 2), the small screen (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) or onstage. Masterworks Broadway will, on April 3, give the deluxe treatment to one of the few milestones in Minnelli’s career not previously revisited: "Live At The Winter Garden".
In 1974, the multi-hyphenate talent was riding high, having taken home a Best Actress Academy Award for her incendiary performance as Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse’s film version of CABARET, as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Program – Variety and Popular Music for LIZA WITH A "Z" also helmed by the visionary Fosse. So it was probably inevitable that Minnelli and Fosse would reteam in their natural habitat: onstage.
Liza Minnelli, just 27 years old and already a superstar, took the stage at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre (today the home of MAMMA MIA!) on January 6, 1974 for a series of 24 sold-out concerts, setting a house record at the venerable theatre. The concert itself, directed and co-choreographed by Fosse, was simply entitled LIZA, and there was no doubt of the surname. Columbia Records, to which Minnelli had recently been signed, was on hand to record the event. It boasted special material by longtime friends John Kander and Fred Ebb (CABARET, CHICAGO) and musical coordination by another Academy Award winner, Marvin Hamlisch. Columbia released the album in April when the shows were still fresh in fans’ minds, but the original LP was soon withdrawn due to legal wrangling with the rights holders to the CABARET soundtrack, unhappy that Minnelli’s famous songs from the film were now available on a competing release.
Now, "Live At The Winter Garden" is back, expanded with three live bonus tracks from the same concerts: Stevie Wonder’s “You And I,” as well as the classic standards “It Had To Be You” and “My Shining Hour.” […]
Chances are, many fans will too find it lovely to have the original Phil Ramone-engineered album finally remastered on CD. Minnelli’s eclectic repertoire for the LP includes Kander and Ebb favorites plus pop hits such as Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” smoky Charles Aznavour chansons “And I In My Chair” and “There is a Time,” and even Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.”
Liza with a “Z” was rewarded with a Special Tony Award for her LIZA concerts, awarded for “adding luster to the Broadway season.” That luster is captured on "Live At The Winter Garden". […] Happy Birthday, Miss Minnelli!
In 1974, the multi-hyphenate talent was riding high, having taken home a Best Actress Academy Award for her incendiary performance as Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse’s film version of CABARET, as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Program – Variety and Popular Music for LIZA WITH A "Z" also helmed by the visionary Fosse. So it was probably inevitable that Minnelli and Fosse would reteam in their natural habitat: onstage.
Liza Minnelli, just 27 years old and already a superstar, took the stage at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre (today the home of MAMMA MIA!) on January 6, 1974 for a series of 24 sold-out concerts, setting a house record at the venerable theatre. The concert itself, directed and co-choreographed by Fosse, was simply entitled LIZA, and there was no doubt of the surname. Columbia Records, to which Minnelli had recently been signed, was on hand to record the event. It boasted special material by longtime friends John Kander and Fred Ebb (CABARET, CHICAGO) and musical coordination by another Academy Award winner, Marvin Hamlisch. Columbia released the album in April when the shows were still fresh in fans’ minds, but the original LP was soon withdrawn due to legal wrangling with the rights holders to the CABARET soundtrack, unhappy that Minnelli’s famous songs from the film were now available on a competing release.
Now, "Live At The Winter Garden" is back, expanded with three live bonus tracks from the same concerts: Stevie Wonder’s “You And I,” as well as the classic standards “It Had To Be You” and “My Shining Hour.” […]
Chances are, many fans will too find it lovely to have the original Phil Ramone-engineered album finally remastered on CD. Minnelli’s eclectic repertoire for the LP includes Kander and Ebb favorites plus pop hits such as Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” smoky Charles Aznavour chansons “And I In My Chair” and “There is a Time,” and even Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.”
Liza with a “Z” was rewarded with a Special Tony Award for her LIZA concerts, awarded for “adding luster to the Broadway season.” That luster is captured on "Live At The Winter Garden". […] Happy Birthday, Miss Minnelli!
Press & Reviews
"Why only three weeks?"
Clive Barnes, The New York Times
Clive Barnes, The New York Times
"Liza makes it seem like it's summer again, and in every respect, LIZA is a winner. It is probably her nervousness, those stretched-out moments of the spirit, that make Liza's performance so exciting. Her vitality is unusual. It is not the sheer powerhouse drive of some singers, but rather the result of some exciting internal tension. It is compulsive and, for all its ease, a little agonized. She has a voice that can purr, whisper, snarl, and roar. Her ability to act in singing was suddenly once again made luminous. She reminded us this was not just a girl who could belt out 'Cabaret' to make juke-box bonanza, but also acted the closest thing to Isherwood's Sally Bowles seen on stage or screen. She's also very sexy in an old-fashioned way that I was beginning to think went out of style. But why only three weeks, Miss Minnelli? Stay longer next time, and then even the management will spell your name right on the tickets."
"...a bond of instant intimacy"
Anthony Mancini, The New York Post
Anthony Mancini, The New York Post
"Liza has a clarion voice and her songs urge us - against the odds - to drink long drafts of life. She carries it off because of her ability to create a bond of instant intimacy. She dances like a colt and most of the time (even with her four dancers), it's just Liza with a Z and alchemy."
"...show business at its professional best"
Robert J. Landry, Variety
Robert J. Landry, Variety
"Not just a song and dance girl but also an actress, getting a lot of her effects facially and through body English, she has a piquant mixture of confidence and diffidence, of wham and subtlety... Everything hung together. The faithful were not disappointed. The squares gave in. The engineered hot-rod pace never slackened. It was show business at its professional best."
"...brimming with health, energy and enthusiasm"
Douglas Watts
Douglas Watts
"Miss Minnelli comes to us in black and white. Besides the extremely attractive velvet little boy suit, she wears a grayish metallic gown, cut above the knees in front and sweeping the floor in back, and a shiny black miniskirted dress for some of her nimble dancing. Liza proves to be an engaging, but far from magnetic, entertainer. And, for whether or not she and her groomers care to admit it, the image of the plucky Judy Garland is never far off, particularly when, in a velvet suit with knee britches and patent-leather pumps, Liza slams home with 'Mammy.' She unavoidably calls to mind Judy's 'Rock-a-bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody.' Liza, even with all her tremendous energy and appeal, is not yet a Sinatra or Streisand. Winning though she is, Miss Minnelli's turn palls long before it is over as the carefully manufactured aura of triumph becomes cloying. She is brimming with health, energy and enthusiasm and she is undeniably talented. Now all she needs is a little fresh air."
Interview with Liza Minnelli
Interview by Pat Cerasaro on occasion of the reissue of the CD, May 7, 2012
© www.broadwayworld.com
© www.broadwayworld.com
What a superb year 2012 is going to be for Liza fans - not only a remastered CABARET Blu-ray, but, finally, "Liza Minnelli - Live At The Winter Garden" available on CD and digitally downloadable starting this week! Do you know what the reason for the long hold-up was?
Minnelli: No! I have no idea - I never know about any of that stuff.
Could it have been the CABARET material was owned by another label due to the film having had just come out?
Minnelli: I'm sure if you say that, then it's true.
There are four simply awesome songs by Kander & Ebb premiered in concert here, as well as the great CABARET material we all know and love. Could you tell me a bit about those new songs, especially "Exactly Like Me" and, my personal favorite, "I'm One Of the Smart Ones"?
Minnelli: Oh, I love that one, too! They're all just such wonderful songs, aren't they? They write so brilliantly. "Exactly Like Me" was meant to be a follow-up to "Liza With A 'Z'". So, I remember Freddy wrote it and we howled at it, you know? Because it really took me apart.
It hit close to home.
Minnelli: Yeah! And I made fun of myself doing it. Back then, there were three or four girls in the theater that had made their eyes up like mine and had tried to look like me, and, so, on opening night at the Winter Garden when I sang it for the first time I made them all cry!
No way!
Minnelli: I felt horrible! I found out afterwards about it. So… [Laughs.]
Do you have specific memories of doing the Winter Garden show?
Minnelli: Oh, I remember the whole run! All of it.
Fosse staged it for you, so did you two approach it as a quasi-sequel to LIZA WITH A "Z", which you had done just a year or two before to such great acclaim?
Minnelli: Yeah, it was, sort of. He helped me on it a great deal. Ron Lewis did some choreography for a few numbers, too.
"Natural Man"?
Minnelli: Yeah, Ron Lewis did that one. Later on, I put that number into the Radio City show, too.
There's an amazing photo of that number in the booklet of the new CD.
Minnelli: Oh, that's a great picture! I know what one you're talking about - I wish I could remember who the dancers are in it with me, but I can't.
How was the song list for the Winter Garden concert devised? Was it you and Fred Ebb?
Minnelli: Yes - me and Freddy always did it. Always.
Were you familiar with Barbra Streisand's "If You Could Read My Mind" from STONEY END when you performed it then?
Minnelli: No, I wasn't - but, damn, I would love to hear that!
That's a fantastic song.
Minnelli: I have to say that what I love most about it is what Marvin did to it - mixing it with "Come Back To Me" in the way that he did; but, the emotion was all the same.
He made that medley into a whole new song of its own, really - a theatrical statement.
Minnelli: Indeed! It's a movie he made out of it, you could say.
[…]
You were in your mid-20s doing the Winter Garden show. Looking back, do you think that you made all the right moves at that point in your career? You were on a real career high.
Minnelli: Well, I think I trusted the right people. That was always what I knew how to do best - was to find people who knew more than I did, instead of just people who agreed with me, and to learn from them.
Hal Prince, Fred Ebb, John Kander - the greatest.
Minnelli: Fred and John really started everything for me - everything.
When you last did this column, we spoke about how their songs may ultimately be the most important aspect of your legacy...
Minnelli: Well, honey, I really just leave that kind of stuff to you guys to do! [Big Laugh.]
"What Makes A Man A Man" is one of your finest concert pieces - a song penned by Charles Aznavour, who is well represented on the new Winter Garden album. How did you discover that song and Aznavour's music in general?
Minnelli: Well, I have been singing his songs for so long. You know, Fred and John influenced me first and then I saw Aznavour and I said, "Oh, that's what I want to do - I want to make each song a movie." It's like each song is an acting piece - it has a world of its own, you know?
Specific.
Minnelli: Yes. So, I went to him and I asked him, "Excuse me, Mr. Aznavour, may I be your protégé?" And he said, [French Accent.] "Yes." He had seen me and he knew who I was. So, off I went to Paris and he got me a job at this great place - this small little theater.
Do you happen to remember which one it might have been?
Minnelli: [Pauses. Thinks.] The Olympia - Piaf had played there.
You performed Piaf's famous "The Circle" at the Winter Garden, so were you familiar with her at that point?
Minnelli: Yes - I mean, I had heard of her, but I did not know her. Aznavour said to me, "Oh, you're nothing like Piaf - you're just a good actress and you sing." [Laughs.]
Talk about cutting to the chase! Leave it to the French.
Minnelli: Yeah - and I love that! Really, who could compare anybody to her? For him to say that to me was just fantastic.
Was "And I In My Chair" one of the songs he performed the first time you saw him? What do you remember about that night?
Minnelli: I went to a concert - I think I was 17 - and when he walked out onstage I stopped breathing… because of the power he had! [Pause.] Ugh, I just can't explain it.
Magnetism.
Minnelli: Yeah - that's right. It was like that - wherever he went, he took you with him.
What do you remember him performing most vividly?
Minnelli: He sang his whole show at that point - I remember "Les Comedians". You know, [Sings.] "Les comedians." He taught me something great - he taught me, [French Accent.] "One gesture per song." [Laughs.]
Fantastic advice.
Minnelli: He was just so terrific with stuff like that.
[…]
What did Charles and Fred think of each other? They collaborated on some superb translations for you, of course.
Minnelli: They got along great! You know, Fred translated all those songs for me - "And I In My Chair" and "You've Let Yourself Go" - and they were just brilliant translations. Brilliant.
You sing "There Is A Time" on your Winter Garden album, but that is a rare non-Ebb translation of Aznavour. Did you discover it already translated and just performed it as is?
Minnelli: Yes. I remember singing it on my first nightclub tour in Los Angeles and I looked down one night and there sitting at the first table was Aznavour!
Wow - so you sang one of his songs for the composer himself.
Minnelli: Yes! Yes.
Was that daunting?
Minnelli: Well, it was, but I just couldn't believe he was there at all - I couldn't believe it! I just kept going - you know, you just keep going on, [Sings. Stutters.] "There is a t-t-time." [Laughs.]
[…]
Where does the Kander & Ebb song "Anywhere You Are" come from - an early version of FLORA, perhaps?
Minnelli: I think it was originally from FLORA for about a minute and a half, but it was cut.
Have you recorded all of the songs from Kander & Ebb's catalogue that you have wanted to do at this point or are there still a few left to do?
Minnelli: Well, gosh, I don't really know - I have to go back and look. But, I'm so thrilled to have introduced these songs and to be thought of as these songs of theirs. You know, introducing a song is a big deal. I think that what you said is true - maybe people will remember me most some day for the music that has been written for me.
Minnelli: No! I have no idea - I never know about any of that stuff.
Could it have been the CABARET material was owned by another label due to the film having had just come out?
Minnelli: I'm sure if you say that, then it's true.
There are four simply awesome songs by Kander & Ebb premiered in concert here, as well as the great CABARET material we all know and love. Could you tell me a bit about those new songs, especially "Exactly Like Me" and, my personal favorite, "I'm One Of the Smart Ones"?
Minnelli: Oh, I love that one, too! They're all just such wonderful songs, aren't they? They write so brilliantly. "Exactly Like Me" was meant to be a follow-up to "Liza With A 'Z'". So, I remember Freddy wrote it and we howled at it, you know? Because it really took me apart.
It hit close to home.
Minnelli: Yeah! And I made fun of myself doing it. Back then, there were three or four girls in the theater that had made their eyes up like mine and had tried to look like me, and, so, on opening night at the Winter Garden when I sang it for the first time I made them all cry!
No way!
Minnelli: I felt horrible! I found out afterwards about it. So… [Laughs.]
Do you have specific memories of doing the Winter Garden show?
Minnelli: Oh, I remember the whole run! All of it.
Fosse staged it for you, so did you two approach it as a quasi-sequel to LIZA WITH A "Z", which you had done just a year or two before to such great acclaim?
Minnelli: Yeah, it was, sort of. He helped me on it a great deal. Ron Lewis did some choreography for a few numbers, too.
"Natural Man"?
Minnelli: Yeah, Ron Lewis did that one. Later on, I put that number into the Radio City show, too.
There's an amazing photo of that number in the booklet of the new CD.
Minnelli: Oh, that's a great picture! I know what one you're talking about - I wish I could remember who the dancers are in it with me, but I can't.
How was the song list for the Winter Garden concert devised? Was it you and Fred Ebb?
Minnelli: Yes - me and Freddy always did it. Always.
Were you familiar with Barbra Streisand's "If You Could Read My Mind" from STONEY END when you performed it then?
Minnelli: No, I wasn't - but, damn, I would love to hear that!
That's a fantastic song.
Minnelli: I have to say that what I love most about it is what Marvin did to it - mixing it with "Come Back To Me" in the way that he did; but, the emotion was all the same.
He made that medley into a whole new song of its own, really - a theatrical statement.
Minnelli: Indeed! It's a movie he made out of it, you could say.
[…]
You were in your mid-20s doing the Winter Garden show. Looking back, do you think that you made all the right moves at that point in your career? You were on a real career high.
Minnelli: Well, I think I trusted the right people. That was always what I knew how to do best - was to find people who knew more than I did, instead of just people who agreed with me, and to learn from them.
Hal Prince, Fred Ebb, John Kander - the greatest.
Minnelli: Fred and John really started everything for me - everything.
When you last did this column, we spoke about how their songs may ultimately be the most important aspect of your legacy...
Minnelli: Well, honey, I really just leave that kind of stuff to you guys to do! [Big Laugh.]
"What Makes A Man A Man" is one of your finest concert pieces - a song penned by Charles Aznavour, who is well represented on the new Winter Garden album. How did you discover that song and Aznavour's music in general?
Minnelli: Well, I have been singing his songs for so long. You know, Fred and John influenced me first and then I saw Aznavour and I said, "Oh, that's what I want to do - I want to make each song a movie." It's like each song is an acting piece - it has a world of its own, you know?
Specific.
Minnelli: Yes. So, I went to him and I asked him, "Excuse me, Mr. Aznavour, may I be your protégé?" And he said, [French Accent.] "Yes." He had seen me and he knew who I was. So, off I went to Paris and he got me a job at this great place - this small little theater.
Do you happen to remember which one it might have been?
Minnelli: [Pauses. Thinks.] The Olympia - Piaf had played there.
You performed Piaf's famous "The Circle" at the Winter Garden, so were you familiar with her at that point?
Minnelli: Yes - I mean, I had heard of her, but I did not know her. Aznavour said to me, "Oh, you're nothing like Piaf - you're just a good actress and you sing." [Laughs.]
Talk about cutting to the chase! Leave it to the French.
Minnelli: Yeah - and I love that! Really, who could compare anybody to her? For him to say that to me was just fantastic.
Was "And I In My Chair" one of the songs he performed the first time you saw him? What do you remember about that night?
Minnelli: I went to a concert - I think I was 17 - and when he walked out onstage I stopped breathing… because of the power he had! [Pause.] Ugh, I just can't explain it.
Magnetism.
Minnelli: Yeah - that's right. It was like that - wherever he went, he took you with him.
What do you remember him performing most vividly?
Minnelli: He sang his whole show at that point - I remember "Les Comedians". You know, [Sings.] "Les comedians." He taught me something great - he taught me, [French Accent.] "One gesture per song." [Laughs.]
Fantastic advice.
Minnelli: He was just so terrific with stuff like that.
[…]
What did Charles and Fred think of each other? They collaborated on some superb translations for you, of course.
Minnelli: They got along great! You know, Fred translated all those songs for me - "And I In My Chair" and "You've Let Yourself Go" - and they were just brilliant translations. Brilliant.
You sing "There Is A Time" on your Winter Garden album, but that is a rare non-Ebb translation of Aznavour. Did you discover it already translated and just performed it as is?
Minnelli: Yes. I remember singing it on my first nightclub tour in Los Angeles and I looked down one night and there sitting at the first table was Aznavour!
Wow - so you sang one of his songs for the composer himself.
Minnelli: Yes! Yes.
Was that daunting?
Minnelli: Well, it was, but I just couldn't believe he was there at all - I couldn't believe it! I just kept going - you know, you just keep going on, [Sings. Stutters.] "There is a t-t-time." [Laughs.]
[…]
Where does the Kander & Ebb song "Anywhere You Are" come from - an early version of FLORA, perhaps?
Minnelli: I think it was originally from FLORA for about a minute and a half, but it was cut.
Have you recorded all of the songs from Kander & Ebb's catalogue that you have wanted to do at this point or are there still a few left to do?
Minnelli: Well, gosh, I don't really know - I have to go back and look. But, I'm so thrilled to have introduced these songs and to be thought of as these songs of theirs. You know, introducing a song is a big deal. I think that what you said is true - maybe people will remember me most some day for the music that has been written for me.
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
At the 28th Annual Tony Awards, held on Sunday, April 21, 1974 at the Shubert Theatre, New York, NY, Liza Minnelli received a special Tony Award for “adding lustre to the Broadway season” for her Winter Garden Concert.
1974 Tony Awards
Special Tony Award
|
LIZA MINNELLI (Winner)
|