Twenty Third & Seventh

Rare homecoming for West End star - Arts - Entertainment - smh.com.au

Link: Rare homecoming for West End star

More Australian theatricals destined for the real world. 

Michael Cormick jumped at the chance to play Judy Garland's lover, writes Bryce Hallett.

After months of treading the boards opposite Simon Callow and Anthony Andrews in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White, Michael Cormick went to South Africa to escape the tumult of London.

The first call came from a politely insistent Lloyd Webber who wanted him to return to London to sing the part of Rhett Butler for a recording of a new musical of Gone With the Wind. The second was from director/producer Wayne Harrison who asked him to appear with Caroline O'Connor in the bio-play about Judy Garland, End of the Rainbow.

...

In portraying Garland's zealously protective partner Mickey Deans, the singer was probably destined to star alongside O'Connor one day as they share a birthday - September 2 - just as he does with Beck, his leading lady in Beauty and the Beast more than a decade ago.

"I think Caroline and I are a good combination. Our scenes in the play are incredibly intimate but it's crucial to making the piece truthful. But, yes, there have been times in rehearsal when we have fallen in a heap laughing, only for Wayne [Harrison] to pull us into line."

Having played Sir Percival Glyde for nine months in Woman in White, Cormick isn't in a hurry to get back to the punishing schedule of eight shows a week. But there are plans for End of the Rainbow to open in London. Who knows, Cormick may find himself torn between partnering O'Connor in a play new to the West End or taking a leap of faith as Rhett in Gone With the Wind. Or, better still, doing both to prove once and for all he can act as well as sing.

23rd & 7th coverage of the premiere season of End of the Rainbow.

LiZa watch. Detroit look-alike contest and 'Cabaret' screening April 25

A tip for all our Detroit based Liza Minnelli impersonators.  I know that you're out there!

Link: PrideSource: Liza look-alike contest and 'Cabaret' screening April 25.

DETROIT - Calling all divas! As further proof that Detroit is Mad About Minnelli, all Liza wannabes are invited to participate in Michigan's first Liza look-alike contest Tuesday, April 25, on stage at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts. A screening of the 1972 cult classic "Cabaret" starring the lovely Ms. Liza will follow the contest, which begins at 7 p.m. Presented in anticipation of Liza Minnelli's June 9 performance and the Fifth Annual Cars and Stars fundraiser, the April 25 Mad About Minnelli contest and screening are free to the public. Long lashes, beautiful boas and ruby red lips are Minnelli trademarks. Metro Detroiters who think that they have what it takes are invited to strut their stuff on the Music Hall stage. Lizas will be asked to parade across the stage to recorded music, and will be judged by local personalities. The event will be emceed by WDIV personality Paula Tutman. The panel of Judges includes WDIV style guru Jon Jordan, Detroit News society reporter Chuck Bennett and Joe Fitzryck, Creative Director of Solomon Friedman Advertising. Judging is based on legs and lashes; talent is not required.

LiZa watch: Liza with a "Z" - A Concert for Television

Link: Amazon.com: Liza with a "Z" - A Concert for Television (Collector's Edition): DVD:

I am massively pissed at amazon.com who haven't shipped my Liza with a Z DVD yet. 

This link to the amazon listing for the DVD that they won't post features a video interview segment with LiZa in which we get a tale of Ye Olde New York, the days when one could find hooker hotels and blacktie gatherings happening on the same block.  Recommended for LiZa fans and all the I remember Times Sq before Disney sufferers out there.

LiZa watch: LiZa says Cher would win contest to determine No. 1 gay icon

Link: Liza Minnelli says Cher would win contest to determine No. 1 gay icon.

The lady is too humble by far.  'Gay icon', as disputeable a notion as it may be, has a very clear hierarchy.  Nobody sits higher than JudyG.  LiZa is Judy's daughter with the added bonus of being more camp [Sonntag definition] than her mother ever managed.

Liza was born into icondom, and, unlike the Luft spawn, she has embraced it with vigour.  Streisand can't be compared, her icondom is self-made. 

Streisand lacks the compelling back story to be a real icon, she is a recent arrival in the world of celebrity where LiZa was born into nobility.  If Streisand wants enduring icon status she'd better get a drug / mental health problem and die dramatically pretty soon.  Sucking up to Presidents doesn't help even if she does chirp for the lesser of two evils.

I'm at a loss as to why Cher is here?  Because she wears bad wigs?  Repackaging yourself because only fags are stupid enough to buy tickets to your concerts does not make one an icon.  It merely confirms a skilful marketing manouver.

I'd suggest Bette Midler might be a better third place holder here.  Midler, at very least, can claim close ties to the revolutionary NY fags of the 60s / 70s and to have lived within very queer fringe communities.  When you get around to reading Jackie Curtis: Superstar in A Housedress, you'll even find out where she got the inspiration for Delores Delago, the toast of Chicago. 

Bette Midler channels Delores Delago?  Did Delores wash ashore at the Chelsea piers?  She has certainly been seen in the neigbourhood.

NEW YORK (AP) - In a contest among Liza Minnelli, Cher and Barbra Streisand to determine who's the No. 1 gay icon, Cher would win - or so Minnelli says.

"I think probably Barbra and maybe even Cher and myself in school felt like outcasts because we didn't have standard looks," Minnelli told Newsweek for its issue on newsstands Monday.

"Maybe what a gay icon is, is a person who is rooted for - in other words, cheered on - by people who feel different," the 60-year-old Minnelli said as her 1972 concert Liza With a Z aired on Showtime and comes out this week on DVD.

But being a gay icon doesn't necessarily mean "gaydar" comes with the turf. She says she didn't find out until two weeks after she married her first husband, Peter Allen, that he was gay.

"Honey, I was 17 when I met him," Minnelli told Newsweek. "But I was the last one to see him before he died because we stayed friends, and that was tough."

She may be a legend, but Minnelli said she mingles with all the classes.

"One of my best friends is a taxi driver; another is a maintenance man," she said. "I go everywhere. People are wonderful. They say hi and I say hi, and we keep going. That's New York."

Liza Watch- Liza on the Boy from Oz

Liza wasn't the only one fucked over by the Boy from Oz.  When they dumped the Australian book for a new and dramatically inferior Broadway book it very literally killed the author, Nick Enright.  He died of a broken heart the night before the Broadway Opening.

Chrissy Amphlett [remember the Divinyls? one of our greatest cultural exports] played Garland here and moved to NY on the understanding that she would take the role on Broadway.  She was passed over for a drag-queen.

But, Hugh Jackman is so brave- acting all gay like that.

*pukes*

An upset Minnelli, who was married to Peter Allen for seven years and is portrayed in the show along with her famous mother, Judy Garland, said she never gave the musical her approval and her request to see the script was refused.

Liza Watch Update. LiZa with a Z at Playbill

Playbill have a good, in-depth article about the restoration of LiZa With a Z.

The return of the lost Kander / Ebb / Fosse 'musical'.

Liza Watch- LiZa's Astrological profile

IF MARCH 12 IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: Singer, actress, performer Liza Minnelli (1946) shares your birthday. You have style! You're bold, daring and original. You don't do things halfway. Furthermore, you have the courage to take a risk. These qualities make you attractive to others, even David Gest. (Actually, you amaze them.) Always trust your enthusiastic impulses to have another vodkatini and a nap. You might experience a change in this coming year.

HAPPY LIZA MINNELLI'S BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY LIZA MINNELLI'S BIRTHDAY!

*select a halston frock
*paste on those fake eyelashes
*swallow a mass of prescription medications
*inhale the annual GDP of a small South American nation
*party like studio54 never closed
                       and
FALL OUT OF BED
[but don't invite that bitch Lorna, OK?]

Any less would dishonour the sublime LiZa.

Liza Watch- LiZa no pants!

MINNELLI SHOCKED CENSORS WITH UNDERWEAR-FREE TV SPECIAL

LIZA MINNELLI shocked censors with the costumes for her 1972 TV special LIZA WITH A Z, because she wore nothing under them.

Watchdogs at America's Standards + Practices threatened to shut the show down three hours before it aired live, prompting choreographer/director BOB FOSSE to beg them to reconsider.

The censors were outraged by the racy HALSTON costumes Minnelli was set to wear on the show, which has been remastered for a DVD release in March (06).

The CABARET star recalls, "It was the first time that Halston clothing had been seen, and I tell you this, there's not a lot of undergarments in Liza With a Z. It's fairly naked.

"There was a lady who came in who was from Standards and Practices, and she took a look at the costumes and said, `She's naked up there. We can't use that.'

"Fosse and (songwriters) KANDER + EBB and (designer) Halston took this one woman into a room and they talked to her for 15 minutes. I'm standing outside and we have three hours before the show goes on.

"She comes out and she has a different look on her face. I said, `Is it all right? Can I wear these clothes?' And she said, `Yes. It's fashion.' They won and the clothes won all kinds of awards, as did Fosse and myself. We all won the Emmys."

www.contactmusic.com

LiZa watch- oh what highs we'll hit.

As Miss Hedwig might say 'long story short'...

I received an unexpected invitation to join the online LiZa fan club from the [quite fascinating] president.  My guilt attack was huge, we do tend to enjoy a joke at LiZa's expense around these parts.  I'm sure they're understood to be borne of affection but I should remind myself that Australian irony doesn't always translate well once it hops the pond.

So, I'm now on a Liza mailing list and the information flow is over-whelming.  It will become a case of cherry-picking the best / most interesting or 23rd & 7th will turn into one long 'what LiZa did next'.

I've reported on LiZa with a Z on DVD.  I'm counting days for that one.  From the info across the list I can now share the cover-art.  Those of you who are dribbling on your keyboards- I know who you are! :-)

Also worth noting is a convenient list of upcoming LiZa dates- she's working hard and all reports say she sounds great and looks healthy.  That makes me strangely happy, the poor woman was such a wreck a few years ago but she has pulled out of it.  The power of music, I'd vouch.

MUCH more interesting is reading that LiZa has a new film, her own project, on the boil.  That can be read about by following the extract below through to the Limelight on Liza website.  At that site you can also see more stills from LiZa with a Z and dig around a website full of intriguing artefacts.

Liza has written a screenplay ( working title"Katie's Blues" taken from a song by Liza's Godmother, Kay Thompson) a story with music, about a woman who owns a small "Cabaret" style nightclub in New York; that will be brought to life by "Chicago" film producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron,who have been working on restoring "Liza With A Z".  Liza plans to re-locate to a new apartment in Manhattan; and then spend time in Los Angeles developing the movie project.
"I am a member of The Writers Guild Of America now" admits Liza