Liza Minnelli - The Act

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:26am

All this talk about Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year got me to thinking about Liza Minnelli in The Act. I had just seen my first two Broadway shows when this was playing, but the only thing I knew about this show was the "City Lights" number Liza performed on the Tony Awards.

Anyone here see it? What was the premise of the show?

Thanks.

[Huss417]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:59am

This sort of gives a brief synopsis. This was one of the first shows I had ever seen on Broadway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Act_(musical)

[After Eight]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:13am

Liza worked like the dickens to make it work, but it didn't.

It looked kitschy glitzy, and had some catchy tunes.

I broke out laughing when a teen-age girl said she wanted to be just like Liza, whose character was anything but a role model.

There were lots of unintentional laughs such as a plug for Halston and some of the lyrics to "City Lights," like rhyming udder with butter. But Liza scored genuine ones with her inimitable delivery of a line like, "oh, please, my nerves."

Liza, you are an incomparable treaure!

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:42am

Ha, just saw that someone on ATC started a thread about this first thing this morning!

[jv92]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:50am

Yes, one of the lyrics in the opening went: "You buy the Halston, but you bust the seam. Shine it on!" Like most people in America were worried about accidentally ruining Halston dresses in 1977. Sorry Fred.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 1:47pm

No. But everyone knew who Halston was.. and it made for a great line. Sorry JV.

This was a pretty bad show.. but Liza was wonderful in it. It was the first actors fund performance I ever attended.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 1:52pm

Wasn't the REAL point to get Scorsese legit theater cred, and her a Tony?

[WOSQ]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 4:45pm

The Act reportedly was offered to Shirley MacLaine first although who knows anymore?

Another rumor was that once signed she insisted on Scorsese with whom she had just finished New York, New York. No Scorsese, no Liza. There were also rumors of an affair, but there always were those kind of rumors.

Remember that Gower was brought in during the long and troubled tryout (Chi, SF, LA) to bring some show biz savvy to the leaden book and numbers that sort of just came and went. That was one of the reasons he spelled Barry Nelson for a bit during the run.

(There were rumors of an affair with Gower too, but I wasn't there.)

Liza worked very hard and won her Tony fairly. Of course she partied very hard too, often until dawn, and missed a lot of shows.

Finally she and the Shuberts (who produced) worked out a deal that she would play 7 a week foregoing the Wed matinee and the number of performances would be tacked on to the end of her contract which extended the run by a few weeks.

Still the show only broke even.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 5:33pm

"Arthur in the Afternoon." Loves that song.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 5:36pm

DAME, I suppose you're right. "Shine it On" is sort of a guilty pleasure song. I do think "The Money Tree" and "My Own Space" are terrific, though.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 8:42pm

I agree with After Eight on this one: Minnelli worked hard, too hard, to make sense of a mess of a show. I found it exhausting to watch.

I remember having standing room and taking a break to go and sit and read my program. That's how involved I was in the story.

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 9:19pm

I like a lot. A lot more than many here. The Act was truly garbage. And I saw it twice. The second time was at the request of a good friend who was starting her opera career. It was Cheryl Studer, and she loved Minnelli.

After City Lights, I turned to her, gave her the "whaddaya think look" and we left for dinner.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 9:51pm

I remember a news story about someone scrawling "Is it Liza or is it Memorex?" on the posters in front of the theatre.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 9:55pm

Jon, that's because it was leaked that some of Minnelli's vocals were on tape, supposedly so she could dance full out. Although other posters here have pointed out that FOLLIES and other shows had already used tape to "sweeten" the vocals during big dance numbers, I remember it being quite the scandal that the great Liza Minnelli would stoop to such tactics.

But now I go back and look at LIZA WITH A Z (1972) and think, "Oh, come on. Some of these vocals are on tape, too."

The public was just beginning to catch on, however, with THE ACT.

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:06pm

I completley forgot about the sweetening. I think The New York Post may have had a couple of items about it. The FOLLIES stuff was tapping in the basement and chaos at the end, but not the leads singing their big numbers.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:14pm

Some posters here have informed me they also sweetened the "Mirror" number since so many of the female cast members were tapping their hearts out. I agree that such sweetening is very different from a star lip-synching a solo; and anyway, I don't think the general public was aware of everything they were doing in FOLLIES at the time.

I definitely remember the mini-scandal about Liza in THE ACT, however. The trend at the time was still to try to disguise the use of microphones, so the idea of a live show using a recording was quite shocking. And the implication was not lost on the musicians' and actors' unions either: if Liza can lip-synch, why can't 4 chorus boys lip-synch to 12 who have been recorded and paid only for one day's work?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:17pm

FWIW, the dancers who were cut in the opening of A CHORUS LINE not only covered for the principals, but spent each performance in the basement, adding taps and choral vocals for the big numbers. But IIRC this bothered nobody because the performers involved were being fully paid and were indeed performing the "sweetening" live.

I'm sure that had been done long before ACL.

(Come to think of it, I'd played a Nazi in THE SOUND OF MUSIC in summer stock, but part of my "role" was to be in the wings at the end to sing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" as the Von Trapps went up the damn hill. LOL.)

Updated On: 8/27/12 at 10:17 PM

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:25pm

HAH! I'm sure you looked through the proscenium vents to watch the moist eyed matrons wiping away their tears as you sang for the beloved family.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:45pm

My deepest, darkest secret, GoSmile, is that while I find THE SOUND OF MUSIC a big ball of hokum and cheesy child acting, I burst into tears every time the family starts up that mountain. So it was all I could do to sing at all!

This is particularly embarrassing given that I've done several productions and well over a hundred performances of the show. And to this day, I still cry at the end. Every friggin' time!

[Jon]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 10:56pm

The use of off-stage singers to "sweeten" the onstage chorus goes back well before A Chorus Line. Typically, in productions of SHOWBOAT, the men of the "white chorus" sing offstage during "Old Man River" to support the black chorus men onstage.

Of course, shows like Company, Promises Promises and Cats employed pit singers.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:06pm

Thanks for the examples, Jon. And, yes, I think we all agree that is very different from using recordings of a soloist.

[DAME]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:15pm

Liza did NOT lip synch during Liza with a z. The very brief moments I assume you are referring to were later looped. Liza sang on that stage. She did not lip synch. I attended the screening of "Liza with a z" when it was restored at the tv academy here in LA and during the q & a after this was discussed in detail.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:18pm

Then that explains what I was hearing, DAME. Thank you for the correction.

(FWIW, I think LIZA WITH A Z is the best one-hour of variety television since the best of her mother's TV shows in the early 1960s. I loved it in 1972 and love it now. I didn't mean to trash the project.)

Updated On: 8/27/12 at 11:18 PM

[DAME]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:23pm

And you know with all these restorations and the poor technology of the time these things are more noticeable. It takes a shade of the magic away. And I agree.. one of the best tv specials ever.

Updated On: 8/27/12 at 11:23 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/27/12 at 11:25pm

But it's still an amazing hour. I've watched it at least a dozen times over the past couple of years as Showtime keeps putting it back into rotation.