In the final night of the UK leg of her Confessions tour, 65-year-old Liza Minnelli proved that showbiz royalty was in town.
A standing ovation met her before she had sung a note and a pink scarf (surely an accessory meant to be whimsically discarded after her entrance) was draped over the piano, signalling the show was about to begin.
If Liza needed a crutch for the evening, it would have been friend Billy Stritch on piano; their creative reciprocity and the five-piece band took the audience through the ultimate back catalogue with a Broadway backdrop.
Liza with a Z was the jokey song that seemed to put Minnelli at her ease, as she admitted to being both excited and nervous when she took the stage. Every song seemed to have a back story – be it on a movie lot or under her mammy’s piano. What Makes a Man a Man would’ve been enough for most folks but it was followed by Maybe This Time, Cabaret and My Own Best Friend. She tried out Pizzazz on the crowd (and it stuck) and But The World Goes Round could only have been followed by New York New York.
An encore of Every Time We Say Goodbye with silky piano accompaniment and a powerfully a capella I’ll Be Seeing You were enough to turn a deaf ear to the fact her vocal power has weakened; though her performance as an actress was a masterclass.
Detractions? There were sound issues and it would have been nice to see a few shock songs, such as a Lady Gaga track (who is a fan, apparently).
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article