By JANE STEVENSON
Toronto Sun

Liza Minnelli, who appears at the Hummingbird Centre on March 16 and 17, was supposed to visit Toronto for two shows last October. But just a week before those scheduled performances, Minnelli pulled out "on doctor's orders." It seems recovering from surgery last spring to remove a polyp from her vocal cords took longer than expected.

"It's just horrifying to me to cancel anything," a raspy-voiced Minnelli, 51, is saying down the line from New York last fall. "It really almost makes me sick to my stomach. But then you gotta think of all of those hundreds and hundreds of letters you've gotten over the years and you don't want to disappoint any of those people by going back too soon. I always think I'm superwoman, I can go charging off and do anything, as far as my performing goes, 'cause thats the way its always been. But this is delicate."

Minnelli has had more than her fair share of troubles -- physical and otherwise -- over the last year.

When she took over for a vacationing Julie Andrews in the Broadway production of Victor-Victoria last January, all hell broke loose in the press despite rave rave and full houses.

Then, she was featured in The Simpsons' season opener last fall in which Homer and family The New York papers reported her co-star Tony Roberts threw a tantrum and played sick because of Minnelli's inability to deliver her lines. (Minnelli reportedly turned "I'm a second-rate hoofer" into "I'm a second-rate hooker.")

"That was nothing," Minnelli insists. "I lost my voice and this guy didn’t come to work for one night and then it kept being in the paper. I think that was the producers. But meanwhile, I made them more money than they’ve ever made. And that's what counts. That's the bottom line. It's business.”

"I had a great time and everybody was wonderful to me and it was ludicrous to read -- I didn’t even read it -- but I tell you everybody was on my side, so that was lovely."

Including Roberts?

"I think they just made him look dumb," says Minnelli, referring to the newspapers, presumably.

Still, Minnelli got people talking -- again -- about her seemingly fragile state, with her trembling appearance as a presenter at last year's Grammy Awards.

Then she was featured in The Simpsins” season opener in which Homer and the family wound up in New York at Betty Ford: The Musical, which featured the song I'm Checking In.

Minnelli also underwent knee surgery last November after a mishap that occurred while walking her dog. (According to her, she "stepped wrong.")

To top it all off, Minnelli made Entertainment Weekly's 1997 "Twit List," which included Farrah Fawcett, Chevy Chase, Michael Flatley and Joe Eszterhas.

By now, Minnelli is used to such treatment in the press, particularly the supermarket tabloids, given her famously troubled life -- the rehab stays for drug and alcohol addictions, three failed marriages and three miscarriages.

In fact, the tabloids recently had her back on drugs and near death.

"Well, it's so stupid," Minnelli says of the rumors. "It's very obvious exactly what happened. It's there for everybody to see and it's simple as, 'My God, millions of singers have had their voices operated on, why are they picking on me?’ “

Minnelli is particularly touchy on the subject of tabloids given she was in Paris at the time of Princess Diana's death last Labor Day weekend.

"I was right there. It was ghastly," she says. "I think that, in the long run, if they hadn't been running, if they hadn't been forced to run or felt forced to run, she'd be alive."

Minnelli also sides with other celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, Fran Drescher, George Clooney and Madonna, who've said that a line must be drawn between stars and the tabloid press.

"It's just not fair. I've spent the last four years just outliving the rumors just by being good at what I do," says Minnelli. "There must be more interesting things for people to read about than the made-up misfortune of other people. You know what Fran Drescher said about that man stalking her because they put her address in the paper. Its ghastly. It's harmful. Let alone --Jesus! -- what they said about me. I just don't even know what to do. I just go back to work. I don't think that my audience is the kind of people that buy those papers anyway."

Speaking of work, Minnelli's current stage show features a 12-piece band and the Cortes Alexander Trio singing backup on some songs.

"Its almost rock and roll but its really, really modern," she says of the trio's sound.

There are also selections from her most recent album, Gently, plus classics like New York, New York and Cabaret.

"It's a little bit more like theatre than a night club act," she says.

What Minnelli won’t be singing is any of her famous mother Judy Garland's trademark songs, despite breaking that long-held vow one night at a recent concert.

"I got my drive from my mother and my dreams from my father," says Minneiii, who claims her professional training came from other people.

"I wanted to be on Broadway and it was a whole different thing. That I learned from Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb and all those good people."

Interestingly, the work of those good people is back in vogue again.

Kander & Ebb's Chicago is now running concurrently in New York and Toronto -- Minnelli filled in for Gwen Verdon during the original Broadway production 23 years ago. And a stage revival of Fosse's Cabaret is about to open with Natasha Mchardson in Minnelli's trademark role of Sally Bowles.

Even Minnelli's partying days with the likes of Halston, Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger at Studio 54 have been adapted for the screen.

"That should be funny," Minnelli says of 54, partially shot in Toronto.

"God, I don't even remember Studio 54 at this point. That's so old-fashioned, I wonder why they're doing it?"

Even melodramatic, Minnelli-like singer Celine Dion is enjoying one incredible success after the other despite being considered extremely unhip by anyone her own age.

"Celine, I think, is divine and she sings just like I do. Do you know what I mean? We're belters," says Minnelli.

"The best way to put it is -- I had a great compliment from Bono from U2. He said, 'You know what, we all want to do what you do.' And I said, 'What's that?' And he said, 'Stand in the light and sing the song."'

Return to News Page