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 July 2006 Back to Table of Contents Back to Archives Main Page Section: Arts & Letters Catching Zs By Ron Ehmke
That moment was 1972, when Minnelli followed up her starring role in the film version of Cabaret with another collaboration with its director, Bob Fosse. Liza with a “Z” was not a motion picture, but it certainly looked like one. Shot on film in a Broadway theater with eight cameras before a live audience in a single take, this hour-long television special firmly established Judy Garland’s daughter as a larger-than-life figure in her own right. The program caused a sensation, but languished unseen for more than three decades until it was restored and released on DVD earlier this year (along with a new version of the soundtrack recording, which has been much easier to find over the years). Like Barbra Streisand and a handful of other young performers who first made a splash on Broadway, in Hollywood, and on albums in the mid-to-late 1960s, Minnelli was a bridge from the grand old showbiz tradition of show tunes and standards to the emerging new culture of rock stars and singer-songwriters. Consider her set list for the special, which includes not only tried-and-true numbers like “God Bless the Child” and “My Mammy” but also relatively recent fare like “I Gotcha” (a soul/funk hit written and performed by Joe Tex) and “Son of a Preacher Man” (made famous by Dusty Springfield three years earlier). Much of the material on Liza with a “Z” (including the title song, plus a witty novelty called “Ring Them Bells” and a show-closing medley of numbers from Cabaret) was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, the duo most closely associated with both Fosse and Minnelli. Liza has often credited the team with helping to “create” her as an artist, and it’s clear that their brassy, conversational approach to songwriting is a perfect fit for her onstage persona. The DVD contains an impressive collection of extras, including a 90-minute Biography episode on Minnelli, a recent one-on-one conversation between her and Kander, an audience Q-and-A after a screening in Toronto, and a number that had been cut by network censors from the Cabaret medley (thanks, apparently, to one of many then-risqué Halston outfits). But the biggest bonus of all is Minnelli’s commentary track. Listening to the now-sixty-year-old performer reflect on her twenty-six-year-old onscreen self is almost as much fun as the main attraction. Referring to Fosse’s crafting of the finished product, she notes, “It’s edited with the same energy that the live show had; I look at it, and I remember exactly how I felt.” As a result, she’s able to talk us through exactly what mental images she had in mind while singing story songs like “It Was a Good Time” and “You’ve Let Yourself Go.” The insight is fascinating; the star of a one-woman show taking us not just backstage but deep into her own head.“You have to believe everything you sing,” Minnelli says at one point on the commentary track. “It has to be a part of you, there’s a reason why you’re singing it, and it has to look like each thought has just come to you, like you’re making it all up as you go along.” At other points, we hear her coaching herself as she nears the climax of one of her signature vocal fireworks displays: “Take a deep breath and keep holding this note ... Keep holding it ... Keep going!” Elsewhere, during the Q&A, she proposes that Fosse’s instantly recognizable choreography grew from his own knock-kneed, pigeon-toed posture in everyday life. We also learn that, even as the black-tie audience was gathering outside the theater before the live concert began, she and her crew were holed up in a roach-infested flophouse across the street prepping her hair and makeup. In all of her retrospective moments on the DVD, she comes across as the most down-to-earth diva imaginable. Liza with a “Z” doesn’t just live up to fond but hazy memories of a bygone era; it actually gets better with repeated viewings. In one bonus feature, the man responsible for its (flawless) restoration calls the original film “a documentary about a performance.” That aspect is even more notable in the show’s current form. It’s a time capsule, perhaps, but it feels every bit as vital and entertaining today as it did in 1972. Ron Ehmke is a Tonawanda-based writer and performer; more of his work can be found at www.everythingron.com. back to top back to table of contents Current Issue | About Forever Young | Where to Find | Advertise | Our Advertisers | Community Calendar | Contest | Clubs | Contact Us | Archives | Home |
