Victor/Victoria
"Ladies and Gentlemen, at this performance the role of Victoria Grant will be played by Liza Minnelli." With that announcement the audience erupted into applause. A few minutes later Liza stumbled onto the stage and into our hearts as the down-and-out Victoria Grant. As the applause mounted, she smiled up into the balcony. One couldn't be sure if the smile was generated by the applause or by her character's relief at getting in out of the cold, but it didn't matter. What mattered was the love that flowed between her and the audience. Each night I could see the tears in her eyes as the audience applauded her curtain calls.
I saw the show 21 times, mostly in standing room. Halfway through the third week came the startling announcement that her co-star Tony Roberts had walked out because she flubbed a line or two. If she did, it was barely noticeable. Later it was reported that Tony was out with the flu, and then that he admitted he wasn't sick, and then that he denied admitting it. The whole thing was ridiculous, and no one asked for a refund because he was absent. However, when Liza became ill and missed the last five shows, most of the audience demanded refunds.
The press hounded Liza for several days, but she said only good things about Tony. She said he was a wonderful man and she enjoyed working with him. When he returned the following week, she kissed and hugged him onstage and showered him with attention, even including him in her final curtain call.
After she became very hoarse the final Wednesday, it was announced on Thursday that she would not be there. However, she arrived at 7:45 to make her apologies to the audience. She hugged me and said she was sorry to disappoint me. She showed me a photo of her vocal cords and asked me to tell everyone what happened and that she was very sorry. Then she went onstage and said that her doctor said she could not go on without doing permanent damage to her vocal cords, but that she was sorry and she'd make it up to them. Everyone rose to their feet and applauded, then most of them walked out. They swarmed the box office in search of refunds and some of them migrated to the elevator entrance. The Post later reported that it was a historic event on Broadway.
Meanwhile the limo driver had been told by the police to move, so he was parked at the corner. When the elevator door opened and she stepped out, the crowd cheered, "We love you, Liza!" She started hugging people and signing autographs until we persuaded her to get out of the cold. She said she didn't feel good, so I took her arm and walked her to the limo. She got in and fell over in the seat. After she left, I noticed people crying. They said they felt so bad for her. Some of them even wrote notes to her and asked me to deliver them. One lady asked me to deliver to her some photos of her taken in Paris, Texas, on the set of a movie her father was directing when she was 14. The next day I dropped off some flowers at her residence with a get well card. Then I spent the next four days hanging around the box office and stage door telling people what she asked me to tell them. I almost got laryngitis myself, but it was worth it because most of them, although disappointed, were very sympathetic after I spoke to them. I tried to dispel the rumors that she was drinking, using drugs, or staging a fake illness to get back at Tony.
On Sunday the show's producer announced that she was responding to treatment but it was taking longer than expected and she needed complete vocal rest for another week. Monday the New York Post announced that she wanted to return to the show later and the producers wanted her to return. January is a slow month on Broadway, but she played to a packed house every show. It was the best selling show on Broadway that month. But it also stated that they were searching for a replacement for Tony Roberts.
The National Enquirer story is a lot of hogwash, as usual. She was excellent, as evidenced by the sell-out crowds and demands for refunds when she was ill. What mattered was the lines at the box office, not the lines of dialog in the show. Everyone who came was there to see her, not the show. She gave the role a whole new dimension and the show a new flavor. She could possibly return in June as her schedule is clear and Julie will be out. I know she had a lot of meetings with the producers. Until the day she became ill, she was signing autographs at the stage door every night. I took many photos and she was always smiling and happy.
From USA Today April 9: "The unsinkable Liza Minnelli's doctors have green-lighted her to get back into full swing after having vocal cord polyps removed. She has added concert dates in Canada, Mexico City, and May 16-18 at the Atlantic City Hilton, and is in talks on three movies/TV specials."
Mexico City and Monterrey, however, were cancelled.
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