Liza in "The Act" — Page 2

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#26

Liza in

Posted: 11/24/13 at 2:25pm

The cast CD is on a really obscure label unheard of for K/E and for LIZA in her prime.

Poster Emeritus

#27

Liza in

Posted: 11/24/13 at 2:55pm

DRG has produced many cast recordings, and really isn't so obscure a label as you claim.

#28

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this (I may be the thousandth) but I'd like to see a "revisal" of The Act that keeps the best songs and replaces the fictionalized backstage drama with a variation on the real one.

#29

Liza in

Posted: 11/24/13 at 4:43pm

If you want to hear a good version of "Bobo's" listen to Dorothy Loudon's version.

I think it's funny on the cast album insert that they list the entire cast and painstakingly note with an asterisk who the non-singing roles are.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#30

Liza in

Posted: 11/24/13 at 5:01pm

Mine is on a different label. I have to check which one.

Poster Emeritus

#31

Liza in

Posted: 11/25/13 at 6:17pm

"Bobo's" was, according to Fred Ebb, written after he and Kander received a phone call letting them know that a friend jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge (I don't THINK it was related to the problems of the show). It's not a bad song, but I've never particularly thought that Bobo's was a great, original name for a bar. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, oddly enough, does the exact same thing as "Bobo's" far more effectively-- even with false rhymes!

#32

Liza in

Posted: 11/25/13 at 6:34pm

I got my CD at a discount store on the Epic label

Poster Emeritus

#33

Liza in

Posted: 11/25/13 at 11:28pm

I saw it in San Francisco, pre-Broadway and thought it was pretty awful. The only time the show caught fire was 'Arthur in the Afternoon' where Liza sang about a mid-day tryst and did a giddy dance with a suspender-clad Roger Minami. Otherwise it was a bore, with the audience actually groaning at some of the bad dialog.

IMHO, if Madeline Kahn had not departed ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY after only 9 weeks, she would've won the Tony instead of Minnelli.

Whatever happened to the oh-so-handsome Roger Minami?

'Our whole family shouts. It comes from us livin' so close to the railroad tracks'

#34

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 8:03am

Epic Records is not an obscure label. It's owned by Sony Music Entertainment - formerly Columbia Records.

#35

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 10:39am

I read somewhere that Kander & Ebb wrote the show for Liza as a thank you for stepping into CHICAGO for Gwen Verdon when she became ill shortly after the show opened.

That's a rather superficial reading of the deep, deep connection between Liza and Fred Ebb.

They were more like family. It was not just a thank-you to a friend.

#36

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 3:49pm

Fred (and John) gave Liza the daughter's part in THE RINK, even though they knew she was going to throw the show off balance and possibly be wrong for the part in the end. A big mistake, they even admitted it. THE ACT was another Liza mistake. But all three loved each other, as PJ has pointed out.

#37

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 3:54pm

At least when I saw "The Act" Liza was in very good form. The problem with the show (and I saw this even thought I was a mid-teen then) was the book - or the attempt at a book. Liza's attendance may have been an issue as well, but the show was poorly conceived.

#38

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:18pm

I don't know why Liza hasn't not played Liza or a character in the form of Liza since the early 70s. Of course, each actor brings himself (or herself) to each different role encountered in a career, but Liza did some marvelous work in THE STERILE CUCKOO and CABARET. Why didn't she continue? Even in THE RINK, one gets a sense that she still wanted to play Liza, even as an ex-hippie.

Chita Rivera has indeed brought her persona to Rosie, Velma, the Spider Woman and so on. But one still got a sense of the character. When she sings "An English Teacher" it sounds entirely different from "All That Jazz", which sounds entirely different from "Where You Are."

I think Liza's a very good actress...or at least, she was. She claims that she loves acting. So act! Singing that godawful song Aznevour wrote about a drag queen doesn't count.

#39

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:26pm

Liza did an episode of Law & Order a few years back, and she was marvelous. I was very surprised she was not nominated for a Guest Emmy Award. She should act more, and leave the "performing" in the past.

#40

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:35pm

Liza was marvelous in THE ACT both times that I saw it. On my second visit, Gower Champion had stepped into Barry Nelson's role unlisted. I don't remember the reason why.

"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#41

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:36pm

Singing that godawful song Aznevour wrote about a drag queen doesn't count.

THANK YOU! I thought I was the only one who hated that song.

#42

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:43pm

I feel like it's something in between- her "performing" and being Liza or a caricature of Liza has become what people want from her. She has stepped out of there- her role in "Arthur" was not one hundred per cent cut-and-dried TERRRRIFFICK, but for the most part, she seems to get hired to do what she does best, and it pays well.

#43

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 5:56pm

Joey, I remember when Liza was at the Palace in 2008 and you saw it and mentioned how terrible the song was. I had never heard it, and also had not seen the show yet. So, I saw it and thought, "Well, Aznevour has written some nice stuff for Liza. I like Le Temps...". OK. Then she sang it. What a tuneless, pretentious piece of sh*t.

I've often said she should do a small-scale evening at the Booth or one of the more intimate houses on Broadway with just a piano or jazz trio. She can still sing the three or four old favorites with a small ensemble of musicians (in lower keys, WITHOUT the Cockney accent in "Cabaret"). But I think her Palace show, which was a joy, should be her last big, ol' Halston-chiffon spectacular. If Julie Andrews can piss off her fans by not singing during a show at a huge arena, Liza will do MUCH better singing some new stuff on a smaller scale at the Booth.

Anyway...

#44

Liza in

Posted: 11/26/13 at 9:31pm

Hushpuppy -- Liza did Arthur in the Afternoon (so to speak) in her concerts for a while. I believe this 1979 one is with Minami like in the Act (and I's imagine the same choreography...) Oh to have lived in the '70s when a routine like this was probably seen as sexy and now seems so innocent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NVwaK_sjGE

#45

Liza in

Posted: 5/30/19 at 11:00am

I woke up this morning missing listening to the OBC recording of THE ACT. So I found it on Amazon Music, and have really enjoyed remembering how dazzling and glamorous Liza seemed to me as a 16 year old gay kid in West Virginia in 1977! And then a couple of years later I saw her in concert (two years in a row!) in Pittsburgh and she did "Arthur in the Afternoon" with Roger Minami both times - it was a a delightful number!

Liza's performance of the songs on the album is Liza at her best - beautiful interpretation of every lyric, terrific use of her powerful pipes, holding back and singing softly at the right times, then releasing full throttle power that bring the songs home...I just loved her then, and love her now! At least we get little glimpses of what she used to be when Michael Feinstein posts impromtu singing session with Liza from his California home..... :)

Updated On: 5/30/19 at 11:00 AM

#46

Liza in

Posted: 5/31/19 at 12:26pm

How is Liza doing these days? Has anyone spoken to her?

#47

Liza in

Posted: 5/31/19 at 2:36pm

Liza this, Liza that, Liza, Liza, Liza!

#48

Liza in

Posted: 5/31/19 at 3:03pm

SmoothLover said: "How is Liza doing these days? Has anyone spoken to her?"

DAY-O

#49

Liza in

Posted: 5/31/19 at 3:16pm

raddersons said: "SmoothLover said: "How is Liza doing these days? Has anyone spoken to her?"

DAY-O"

I laughed.

#50

Liza in

Posted: 5/31/19 at 3:32pm

What a funny old thread this is. First of all, The Act was issued on DRG, not Epic. Not sure how Epic would have gotten it at any point in time.

Secondly, not mentioned in this thread is that Furth completely revised this and that version was workshopped here in LA - I saw it. It was worse than the Liza version - like hugely worse. Gloria Loring played the lead and Peter Strauss her love interest. If anyone thought the original book scenes were soap opera, they didn't hold a candle to this. Add to it dreadful direction and choreography by Walter Painter - one of the most excruciating afternoons I've ever spent, and yes, I saw the original pre-B'way here in LA - that, at least, had Liza, the terrific Ron Lewis choreography, the great Roger Minami in Arthur in the Afternoon, and I believe at that point it had the Halston costumes and the title had already changed to The Act. Scorsese was still directing, but I think Gower was about to come in. It was a mess, but had its oddly appealing moments. I have the program from the workshopped revisal somewhere - can't remember if any songs were cut or not, although I know Shine It On was gone.

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