If
you can manage to put aside any innate low tolerance you may have for
overt
show business narcissism and Vegas-style overstatement, Liza's
at the
Palace truly is a triumphant comeback for Ms.
Minnelli.
If she's no longer everything she was in her heyday (and who is?), and
if she
has to take long pauses after vigorous dance numbers for deep gulps of
air,
she's nonetheless far more on top of her game than she was in her 1999
concert,
Minnelli on Minnelli, in which
she was physically overweight and vocally shot, cheating out on high
notes that
were gone, seeming never to return. But she comes by her show business
narcissism honestly as it was clearly preceded by some kind of show
business
epiphany about the ravages of indulgence (You think? Somehow it's
always news
to the afflicted celebrities) and in her twice-extended current
engagement
she's slimmed down and evidencing a vocal recovery that is, if not
100%,
appropriate enough for her age (the notes aren't all back without some
effort,
but they are, at least, back). And speaking of her age, she looks great
too.
Most
of the evening's contents amount to an unexceptional choice of some
exceptional
songs, a number of which she's been associated with for years (most by Kander
and Ebb) and a longish act two
medley-slash-profile of
songs by—and other songs that became likewise signatures for—one of
her mentors, arranger-coach-performer Kay Thompson. And Ms. Minnelli delivers them
variously, with
and without her backup "boys," though always with the top-notch aid of
musical
director Billy Stritch and his
orchestra. (There's but one conspicuous miscalculation: the inclusion
of the
Styne-Comden-Green
patter number "If
You Hadn't, But You Did";
Liza
simply hasn't got mastery of the high-speed diction required to pull it
off.)
But
in a way, the evening is less about its contents than the comeback
itself, the
tone set early with a song written for the occasion (and layered with
multiple
meaning) called "I Will Never Leave You" (Billy Stritch-Johnny Rodgers-Brian
Lane Green): it's a
song for, and an evening about, someone
who has found the determination to clean up her act (in all senses) and
survive, with her star wattage intact. And underneath the narcissism
and the
overstatement, that's the genuine, glowing kernel at the center of the
show,
and I am surprised as I can be to tell you that it's really quite
moving.
Who'd've
thought...?