Originally published on www.sosogay.co.uk
If there’s one person you should see live before you die make sure its the queen of showbiz herself, Miss Liza Minnelli. At the age of 66 the legend of stage and screen showed the audience at the South Bank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall just how she became a living legend.
Minnelli’s performance was part of The Rest is Noise Festival, which was billed by London’s South Bank Centre as being a tribute to the Weimar era, though Minnelli herself didn’t perform much from the era attributed with inspiring the reason for her performance. However, this didn’t stop her from being mesmerising, witty and funny, or from giving an all-round triumphant performance.
From the moment she walked onto the stage she had the audience in the palm of her hand as they sat their enthralled by her. The performance was her first at the Royal Festival Hall since 1973, when she performed Liza with a ‘Z’, and we got a reminder of this when she performed the song in question.
Despite her vocals being a little shaky at the beginning, they improved significantly as the show moved on, giving the audience a look at her memorable belt that, despite everything, she has managed to maintain. While the voice was incredible for someone her age, she looked a bit shaky on her feet and required a rest at one point allowing her pianist, Billy Stritch, to perform a solo number, ‘No Moon At All.’ Stritch was a big part of the show in fact, as he performed a duet of ‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’ with Liza, to a roaring applause.
The applause and laughs throughout the show continued as Minnelli told hilarious stories from her past and gave impressively big performances of ‘Maybe This Time’ and ‘Cabaret’, which received standing ovations; there were also a couple of humourous songs such as ‘He’s Funny That Way’ and ‘You’ve Let Yourself Go.’ But one of the best performances of the night came when Liza performed Charles Aznavour’s ‘What Makes A Man A Man.’ Lit by a spotlight, the audience could see Minnelli, and Minnelli only, as she sang the song about sexual identity and told her audience to be themselves. I’ve heard the song on a number of occasions but seeing it live gave me chills.
Minnelli ended the stellar show with her signature tune, ‘New York, New York’, giving the audience a glimpse of her signature “YEAH” before the song and ended on an incredible high note that saw waves of applause fill the room.
After 90 minutes on stage and being every inch the professional non-diva, Minnelli gave a number of encores for her fans – something you wouldn’t see at a Madonna concert – and ended by singing a cappella to fans; proving that despite the ups and downs of her life, the voice is still as big and strong as ever.
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