SAN FRANCISCO, May 1997

By Laura Guyer

Liza made them love her, said the Chronicle. Liza sparkles against odds, said the Examiner. I counted five standing ovations and ten curtain calls every night. After weeks of uncertainty, there is no longer any doubt that she is better and stronger than ever and that the audiences love her more than ever. Those of you who are concerned that she is hurting herself by performing too soon, don't worry. Her throat is completely healed and exercising her vocal cords will only make them stronger. Her voice teacher, Gary Catona, was there and had her drinking a mixture of apple cider and vinegar which is supposed to help.

She opened the show in her rainbow dress with I'm Happy and continued with her usual repertoire, which included Old Friends, So What, Sailor Boys, Gigi, I Love a Violin, the Kander and Ebb medley, the Gently medley, and All the Lives of Me.She did her dance in the pink pantsuit with the trio singing Fascinatin' Rhythm. Then she did Ring Them Bells in the red pantsuit. She was even able to do The World Goes Round, which she could not do a few weeks ago. Her Gently costume was the dress you saw her wearing on the Tony Awards.

After she did New York, New York in her tuxedo, the house erupted in a roar like I've never heard before. It was enough to give you goose bumps. She looked up and pointed at the people in each tier, of which there were several. She received so many flowers that she walked across the stage staggering under the load. She even brought Lily out on stage on closing night.

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

By Philip Elwood

You Gotta Love Her-Liza Minnelli is a trouper, no doubt about it-Her voice was raw and shaky to begin with-and got worse; a recent hip replacement has curtailed her dancing, but not her strutting; various mishaps and ills have gotten her out of shape and somewhat heavier.

But did anyone at Wednesday night's sold-out Davies Symphony Hall care about these bits of irrelevant trivia? Of course not. We're talking here, after all, about Liza-Liza Minnelli, one of the few old-style song-and-dance troupers left. For Liza, the show must go on, and through thick and thin, damned if it didn't, right on through the two-hour concert to four encores and innumerable curtain calls.

Minnelli first strode on stage-wrapped in an off-the-shoulder rainbow-hued sarong-to the orchestral strains of a vampish overture''; she grabbed a mike and took us back to Irving Berlin's 1930 classic "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," in the midst of which she interpolated bits of Al Jolson's "Mammy." "I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles.." she sang, and for many in the house this line, in Jolie's style, brought back wrenching memories of Liza's mother, Judy Garland, a marvelous Jolson imitator.

Minnelli in her 51st year is, in face, often reminiscent of her mother. Toward the concert's end and tired but ebullient, her voice almost gone, she told her enthralled audience, "I won't let you down," and sang "Embraceable You" with Garland's anguished inflections, her brow furrowed, her hand holding the mike in a bowler's grip.

This was a living legend carrying on the tradition of those singers who had gone before. There's a lot of the pre-World War I stylings of greats like Nora Bayes, Eva Tanguay and Blossom Seely in Minnelli, and of somewhat later stars like Ethel Merman, Jolson, and Jimmy Durante. Decked out in a loose mandarin red shirt and slacks outfit, she did a marvelous Durante routine on "Ring Them Bells."

With the irreplaceable Bill Lavorgna directing her accompanying dozen orchestra members from his drums, and occasionally assisted in both vocal and comedy-continuity routines by the Cortes Alexander trio, Minnelle carried the delightfully haphazard program through thick and thin. She talked, then sang; gushed, then sang, shifting from such as "The Man I Love" to "I Like It" (with touches of Louis Armstrong), and then back to a remarkable sensitive and true "Gigi."

In a pink mini-bowler hat, shirt, and pants, Minnelli came on stage as the vocal trio sang "Crazy Rhythm and joined in dancing on "Fascinatin' Rhythm." "I Love a Violin," a specialty number of Kay Thompson's, preceded the intermission, after which came the inevitable "Cabaret" medley (including some relatively unknown stuff) and some songs from her recent Angel CD-"It Had to Be You," "Some Cats Know," and others.

"The Day After That," a 1993 anthem for AIDS, seemed to the the evening's final song but Minnelli returned to do "NewYork, New York," her voice often cracking into silence, the trio did "Liza," and then she did "You Made Me Love You" acapella-shades, again, of Garland.

Minnelli's near-tearful appreciation of the crowd's enthusiastic, appreciative response rang true to the ears. But I've always been a sucker for splendid all-round entertainers, and that's Liza!

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