wowOwow - The Women on the Web

12/03/2009 1:00 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Liza Minnelli – Free to Be Me!

Also from Our Gossip Girl: Serena and Venus Williams – You go, girls! And Liz, Le Cirque and Tim Gunn ...

"Every second of everything that has ever happened to me, good or bad, personal and professional, brought me to the place where I could have the courage to do ‘Liza’s at the Palace.’ For that alone, I wouldn’t change a thing; not that I usually think about changing things. I move on!"

That’s the indestructible Liza Minnelli.

***

I spoke by phone with Liza only hours before she sparkled at NYC’s Paley Center last week, presiding over a screening of the film version of her now-legendary run at the Palace Theater. (This is the show wherein she paid brilliant homage to her godmother, the great entertainer/author Kay Thompson. She also sang to spine-tingling effect, her mother’s famous "Palace Medley.")

When Liza Minnelli is in good form, her energy shoots like an electric charge even through the phone wire, "Hi, honey!!" she boomed in a voice as clear as Figi water.

Ever since "Liza’s at the Palace" wowed the Broadway critics and audiences last year, the star has given much credit to the show’s director, Ron Lewis, of whom she says, "He finally allowed me to be myself, onstage. The real me." She adds, delightedly, "He even let me light some of the numbers. He listened to my ideas!" (I have never known Liza not to credit everyone she works with. In that way, she is very generous.)

I was a little surprised to hear Liza say she is "finally herself." The hallmark of her work, her appeal, has been the truth and emotion she offers. "Oh, I’ve always been true and sincere, but … you know Fred Ebb (who died in 2004) and John Kander – they wrote so many of my songs; they wrote almost every word I spoke onstage. When I’d say ‘they created me,’ I wasn’t kidding. And that was great. But, in this show, I feel I am on my own, more grown up, the humor is more me. I just feel – like Liza."

We talk of Liza’s recent gig in Australia, home of her loved and admired first husband, Peter Allen. I’d heard Liza closed there with a song for Peter, which brought the entire house to tears. "It was a song Peter wrote, called ‘All the Lives of Me.’ I’ve always wanted to sing it, and I figured Australia was a good place to start. The lyrics are so beautiful."

And then, without so much as a "let-me-clear-my-throat," Liza Minnelli begins to croon over the phone: "Everywhere I go/I’m followed by a lot of people/Such a lot of people/It’s almost a parade/And if you see all the people/They’re everyone I ever was, and everyone I ever will be/All the lives of me."

Liza sang the entire song to me a cappella. She sounded great. I said, "Liza! Damn! I’m not recording this interview. I could sell that."

The star laughed huskily, "Royalties, Liz. Remember the royalties."

Then she yelped, "Oh, I gotta go. I have more people to talk to!"

"But, Liza, please tell me I’m the only one you’ll sing to!" She promised.

The dazzling film version of "Liza’s at the Palace" will be seen across the country on PBS stations all through December. It arrives on DVD February 2. Don’t miss this work of art and triumph of the will.

***

"You cannot be serious!?!?" That’s tennis ace John McEnroe’s famous, belligerent shout-out to line judges and others who opposed him during his heyday. Being a trophy-winning champion and a bad boy paid off for McEnroe. He now uses the legend of his famous temper – and that phrase – in TV commercials.

So does this mean that someday Serena Williams will appear pushing a product and employing whatever profanity she used to get herself an $82,500 tennis fine this week? (Many tennis insiders agree that Serena’s fine was a bit extreme. Her "foot fault," which sparked the incident, is something rarely called at such a significant moment in such a significant match.) But Serena says she is glad there is "closure" on the matter. Maybe the high amount of the fine just added to her iconic legend.