Book Review: Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!

(Borrowed from a friend) I have a lot more respect and sympathy for Liza Minnelli after reading this memoir, "as told to Michael Feinstein with Josh Getlin and Heidi Evans." (The writing process must have been interesting. I suspect Liza would have long tape-recored conversations with the singer and cabaret artist Feinstein, her best friend. Then Getlin and Evans would fashion the transcribed talks into the book.) Regardless of how the book was written, it does come across as Minnelli speaking to the reader like a close chum (hence the title.) In the latter part of her career, she was reported to be frequently drunk, high, in and out of rehab and detox programs (not just Betty Ford), and involved in a scandalous fourth marriage to a crook who stole almost all of her money. She was repeating the pattern of her famous mother Judy Garland who succumbed to her various addictions at 47. 

Here Liza explains, but doesn't justify, her numerous falls from grace with humor and humility, also the tremendous highs of performing live. Her addiction was inherited from her mom and so was her enormous talent. But she has overcome the former and tried to use the latter as best she can. I've seen her live twice on Broadway in her concerts Minnelli on Minnelli and Liza at the Palace. Both were electric experiences. She also details her many love affairs with everyone from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Ben Vereen. The book concluded with a furious backstage account of her wheelchair appearance to the 2022 Oscars. Apparently according to Liza, it was all Lady Gaga's fault. Maybe. A fast read from a fabulous lady I understand better now.

B'way Update: Lin-Manuel Miranda and NY, NY Musical

Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro in
New York, New York

Summertime and the livin' ain't easy. We keep getting bulletins about future shows. The latest is a new musical loosely based on the 1977 Martin Scorsese film New York, New York which starred Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro. Deadline reports the show which is aimed for Broadway in Spring 2023 will feature an all-star team behind the scenes. Dig this line up. The score will feature songs from the film by John Kander and Fred Ebb including the iconic title song immortalized by Minnelli and Frank Sinatra in separate recordings. New songs will be written by Kander with lyrics by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. The book will be David Thompson who worked with Kander and Ebb on such projects as The Scottsboro Boys and Steel Pier, and Sharon Washington, who was in the cast of Scottsboro Boys and was seen most recently in the Central Park Richard III. Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (helmer of Scottsboro) will direct and choreograph. According to Deadline, the plot will bear little resemblance to that of the original film which followed the rocky relationship of bandleader DeNiro and his lead singer and love interest Minnelli. The new story will be set in 1946 in the title metropolis as it recovers after WWII.

This is probably the production Johnny Olensinski reported about in the New York Post when he wrote there was a Kander and Ebb revue called New York, New York possibly booked for the St. James in the spring.

Post-Slap Oscar Thoughts, Final Nominees List

Insert obligatory Chris Rock/Will Smith 
photo caption here

Okay, here is the obligatory post-Oscar rant. Only this year's is a bit different. I was all set to celebrate my getting 21 out of 23 categories right in my predictions and to complain about eight technical and design awards being presented before the show started, but then Will Smith had to go and slap Chris Rock and ruin it for me. The show had been pretty routine up to that point and I was complaining on Twitter about all the commercials (there seemed to be more than usual). Then Chris Rock did his lame joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's lack of hair and Smith went off after an eye-roll from the wife. All kinds of horrible triggers here. Toxic masculinity. Over protective patriarchy. Trumpist violence becoming acceptable. Racist stereotypes of black men being unable to control their emotions reinforced. Idols like Bill Cosby, OJ Simpson and now Will Smith falling. Comedians being in danger for doing their job. 

Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show: Part 9

Lyle Waggoner

The corona virus lockdown continues. I am too disgusted with Donald Trump to comment on his hideous actions. With no theater or movies to go to, I have time to watch old Carol Burnett Show reruns on MeTV and Amazon. As noted in the previous blog, these are highly edited versions of the original, but I have found some missing pieces on YouTube. Also, Lyle Waggoner, Carol's ultra-handsome, muscular, gorgeous hunk announcer and supporting comedy player, has passed away at 84. One of my first TV crushes, he was on the show for 7 seasons, then played Steve Trevor on Wonder Woman. He appeared on numerous TV shows after that including Maude, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat and The Golden Girls as well as the horrible Catalina Caper on MST3K. But he concentrated on his business of renting trailers for movie shoots. Perhaps he realized you can't be a handsome hunk forever. He will always have a special place in my TV-loving heart.

Season One
Sept. 18, 1967: Sid Caesar, Liza Minnelli
The edited version of this one is really heartbreaking. It's the second aired episode and a very young Liza Minnelli is one of the guests. Carol announces she will be on and says "I don't know where she

Liza Minnelli with Carol

gets her talent," referring to Liza's mother, the legendary Judy Garland. This was only a few years after Liza won a Tony for Flora the Red Menace and before she won an Oscar for Cabaret. So it would have been great to see her and Carol sing a duet. But the only appearance this multi-talented lady makes in this 22-minute slashed version is at the end signing Carol's autograph book. Whoever makes the editing decisions could easily have gotten rid of the stupid LBJ daughter sketch or the Carol and Sis vignette featuring a sleepy Carol trying to stay awake during an interview with Chris' college admissions director (played by Rhetta Shaw who later appeared in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.) (The writers recycled the same material a few episodes later with Carol being too drunk to speak with Chris' algebra teacher.) Sid Caesar did have a sorta funny monologue about an expectant father imagining his future relationship with his son.

Fortunately, while looking for pictures of Liza and Carol on Google, I found YouTube clips of four of Liza's appearances on Carol's show. From deductive reasoning, I figured which segments went with which shows, so this really was a reconstruction--the original intention of this series of posts. During this episode, Liza solos on Randy Newman's "The Debutante's Ball," which she sang on her first album. She also does a beautiful medley of songs containing the word "time" in the title with Carol.

Ellen and the De-Glamorization of the Oscars

The Oscar selfie retweeted by several million people
 including me.

Right after the Oscars, I received several Facebook posts from detractors of this year's host Ellen DeGeneris. I absolutely loved her. I thought she hit exactly the right note between cynical debunking of Hollywood and acting as a surrogate for crazed movie fans. It was clear she loved being there close to the stars and enjoyed kidding them gently. Her whole shtick was to tell the audience, see these big film people are just like you and me. They get hungry, they eat pizza, they pose for selfies. It was a big improvement over last year's snarky Seth McFarland who was determined to be as nasty and lowbrow as any of his Family Guy characters. I'm still cringing from the "We Saw Your Boobs" choral number and the endless, unfunny opening bit with William Shatner.

Smash Episodes 209 The Parents and 210 The Surprise Party

Megan Hilty and Bernadette Peters
on the last Tuesday-night Smash.

Smash has limped to its new berth on Saturday nights, but in the same week it played its final Tuesday slot. Two episodes of Smash in one week? What do you think I am, NBC, a martyr to hate-watching? You're just lucky there was no Amazing Race this week because of the Country Music Awards, otherwise I would have waited and crammed three blogs into one.  On the Tuesday show, Bernadette Peters as Ivy's mother Lee Conroy joins the cast of Bombshell and Karen's father visits from Iowa. See, the episode is called "The Parents" and both leading ladies have mommy-daddy issues... get it? On Sat., Ivy is pissed at Tom so Tom invites Liza Minnelli to sing for Ivy on her birthday. Sure, Liza does that sorta stuff all the time.