NEWSDAY

Learning about Liza Minnelli

BY ROBERT KAHN / robert.kahn@newsday.com

October 10, 2007

Liza Minnelli's life has transpired in such a public way that audiences, like the one she'll entertain Saturday at Tilles Center, may think they've heard everything there is to say about the long-lashed, throaty and - mull this last adjective carefully - resilient dancing dynamo.

You know that Liza comes from legendary Hollywood stock. You're up to speed on the well-documented battles with substance abuse and past medical woes. And perhaps you've caught on that she was once married to Peter Allen, you know, that fella Hugh Jackman played in "The Boy From Oz"?

Here, we honor the exuberant Minnelli with a primer: "26 Things You Didn't Already Know About Liza," or, "Liza from A to Z,"* with particular focus on her life in New York and her plans for the next year.

* With help from both Minnelli and Scott Schechter, who administers the Web site OfficialLiza Minnelli.com and is author of "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook."

1. Liza's first exposure to songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb ("Cabaret") occurred backstage during a winter stock performance in ... Mineola. Liza was performing in a 1964 tour of the musical "Carnival" at the Mineola Playhouse when she heard fellow actress Marge Cameron singing the Kander and Ebb song "If I Were in Your Shoes" in the orchestra pit during a dinner break. "For me, it was the beginning of everything," she has said. And it was: After an introduction to the two, she'd make her Broadway debut the next year in their musical "Flora, the Red Menace."

2. Liza has taken the stage at nearly every major Manhattan venue, including: Carnegie Hall, where she had an unprecedented three-week run in 1987; the Palace, where she shattered the record for first-day ticket sales ahead of "Minnelli on Minnelli," a 1999 tribute to her father; and the Winter Garden, where she earned her second Tony for a one-woman show, in 1973.

3. Liza appeared at the venue formerly known as the Westbury Music Fair with engagements in seven different years: 1966, 1967, 1986, 1994, 1996, 2003 and, most recently, early 2005.

4. Liza has filmed a gaggle of movie and TV roles in and around the city, including: "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (Sardi's), "That's Dancing!" (Times Square), "West Side Waltz" (Manhattan), "The Sterile Cuckoo" (upstate Hamilton College), and, last year, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (Manhattan). Liza's character in "Arthur," an actress-waitress, lived in Queens.

5. Liza sang "New York, New York" at the 2001 Mets game that was the metro area's first major sporting event after the Sept. 11 attacks. She also sang the song at the reopening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 1986, and at a 1978 Studio 54 party honoring the revival of New York City, at which a guest was Mayor Ed Koch.

6. Liza was close pals with the late fashion designer Halston, who designed all her frocks for the famous 1972 TV special "Liza With a 'Z,'" directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse.

7. Liza has won three Tonys, an Oscar, an Emmy and a special Grammy. She's got a pair of Golden Globes, too.

8. Liza is the only Oscar winner ("Cabaret") who is the child of two Oscar winners: Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli.

9. Liza's first movie role was at age 2, alongside her mother and Van Johnson in "In the Good Old Summertime." Judy was pregnant with Liza during the filming of "Till the Clouds Roll By," which is why Judy's body is mostly hidden in the 1946 film.

10. According to the Web site notstarring.com, movies that Liza turned down, or that were ultimately not made with her, include: "A Star Is Born" (then called "Rainbow Road"), "The Great Gatsby," "Chicago" and "Evita."

11. Judy Garland starred with Jack Haley (the Tin Man) in her breakthrough movie, "The Wizard of Oz." Liza married Jack's son, Jack Haley Jr., in 1974.

12. During the 1980s, Liza's recording career was briefly managed by Kiss bass guitarist Gene Simmons, who connected her with the Pet Shop Boys for "Results," her 1989 solo album.

13. Liza's favorite ice cream flavor is Caramel Cone.

14. Around 2000, Liza was beset by a series of serious health concerns, including a life-threatening bout of viral encephalitis. During this period she also had two hip replacements as well as surgery on her knee and vocal cords. While her weight has fluctuated in recent years, she was fit as a fiddle at this summer's premiere of the movie "Hairspray" in Manhattan. On a Morristown, N.J., stage 10 days ago, Minnelli told her audience that she'd just shed 43 pounds on Jenny Craig, inspired by her friend, Kirstie Alley.

15. Bridesmaids at Liza's ill-advised 2002 wedding to David Gest included Mia Farrow, Chaka Khan and Gina Lollobrigida.

16. After Liza's May 23, 1965 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," she was signed to a contract to make six more appearances on the CBS variety hour over a three-year period. Forty years later, she was signed to appear on only two episodes of the Emmy-winning comedy "Arrested Development," but was such a hit as the equilibrium-challenged "Lucille 2" that she ultimately appeared in eight more. Her best scripted line: "I'm back, and I'm as stable as a table."

17. This year, Liza's been listening to records by the Barenaked Ladies, Maroon Five and My Chemical Romance.

18. Her two favorite TV shows are "Dancing With the Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance." She still takes dance classes for two hours every morning with Eugene Louis Faccuito, who is better known by the nickname he got from Gene Kelly: Luigi.

19. Her favorite form of transportation is a Ferrari.

20. Liza is named after a song by her godfather, Ira Gershwin. It's called "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)."

21. Liza's current project is a multimedia tribute to godmother Kay Thompson, the famous vocal arranger for MGM studios and author of the "Eloise" children's books ... tales based on young Liza's adventures at the Plaza Hotel. The concert tribute includes a worldwide tour with Jim Caruso, Johnny Rodgers, Cortes Alexander and Brian Lane Green as "The Williams Brothers," recreating portions of Thompson's celebrated 1940s and '50s nightclub act.

22. A corresponding album/ CD, "The Godmother and the Goddaughter," is in the works, with help from producers Michael Feinstein and Phil Ramone. A Showtime TV special is being produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, producers of the movie musicals "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls." Sources say it likely will be taped in New York this winter.

23. Meron and Zadan are planning a film of Liza's screenplay, "Katie's Blues." Liza will play the lead role: a nightclub owner.

24. A "30th Anniversary Edition" DVD of the movie "New York, New York" will be released Dec. 4.

25. She loves to read books by John Steinbeck.

26. Liza will drink only red Gatorade before a show.

WHEN & WHERE

Liza Minnelli is the star of Tilles Center for the Performing Arts' Gala XXVII Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The gala, Tilles Center's major annual fundraiser, honors Joseph R. Ficalora, chief executive of New York Community Bancorp. Tickets, $85-$150, on sale at Ticketmaster.com, the Tilles box office and by phone at 516-299-3100. Tilles Center is located on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Route 25A in Brookville.