By Jack Neal, Reno Gazette-Journal, May 18

Liza Minnelli still has the magic that holds an audience in her spell. With shouts of "We love you, Liza" from many in Saturday night's sold-out crowd at the Silver Legacy, the show business icon pulled out all the emotional stops she keeps in her vast repertory of emotionalisms and delivered the kind of memorable performance that has made the star a legend.

Looking robust and healthy, if somewhat more matronly than current publicity photos indicate (contrary to rumors, she's but mildly overweight), Minnelli was on center stage for 60 of the show's 90 minutes, strutting, singing and - most of all - acting her way through nearly two-dozen songs.

Leading off with the razzmatazz she brings to her version of Alexander's Ragtime Band" and wrapping up with the pizazz of her "New York, New York," it was the Minnelli audiences adore - save one thing: Her voice has only flashes of its former flexibility and resonance.

Too often one of the realities of being a Broadway singing star, or a pop star on the road, is overuse of the voice. Minnelli is a belter and unless she's careful about how and how often she uses her voice, overuse can (if it hasn't already) lead to permanent damage. Not too many months ago the singer had throat surgery to repair vocal-fold damage incurred toward the end of her run in "Victor/Victoria." Judging from the sound of her voice Saturday night, an extended layoff could reap huge dividends for not only a fully restored voice, but a lengthened career.

But, evidently, the show must go on. To her credit, the show that went on, short of its star being in great voice, was close to a showbusiness triumph. Minnelli's energized style and high-octane presence never missed a beat. She has the talent to be virtually all things at once, but is most especially - a superb actress-singer. She can be, at the turn of a phrase - or flutter of an eyelash - bittersweet, wistful, poignant, sexy, despondently disillusioned or heroically gallant.

She makes each of her songs "little movies," as she described her work, "with complete stories." Or at least stories as complete as any of life's stories can be. There was a heart-rending "The Man I Love" ("Maybe Tuesday will be my good-news day"), the swagger of "Old Friends" ("Who's like us? Damned few!"), a haunting "Embraceable You ("My parent's favorite song" and a touching "Let Yourself Go," a wife's lament on the vicissitudes of a Iong-running marriage ("I even hold the door for you”).

Minnelli has a Chaplinesque quality about her most personal work that is utterly magnetic. She is show business. She’s also a seasoned trouper who isn't afraid to surround herself with the best in high-powered talent, including the 12-piece band (about all the smallish Silver Legacy stage will hold) that played the show's arrangements with drive and perfection.

Jazz singer and pianist Billy Stritch was the show's opening act. His refreshing new look at Gershwin's "There's a Slow Boat Leavin' Soon for New York" was terrific, as was everything else he sang and played. The Cortes Alexander Trio (with Alexander, Gene Reed and Drew Sarich) is the hottest vocal trio I've heard. Their steamy, stratospheric "Stormy Weather" was sensational.

Things sensational have always been associated with a Minnelli show. High drama is another yardstick for measuring the success of one of her shows. The death of Frank Sinatra, one of the singer's closest friends, only heightened the drama of this particular Minnelli event. "Happy people," songwriter Charles Aznavour once wrote, "have nothing to say." That's why, perhaps, Minnelli's comments about Frank Sinatra and her singing of "New York, New York" in tribute to him, said so much and moved so many.

Jack Neal, a government teacher at Reno High School, is a former high school music director.

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