Maybe this time...

We saw a living legend the other night.

You know how there are just some people that you love, irrationally. You hear the gossip and get a whiff of the tabloid rumors and you just don't care. That's how I feel about Liza Minnelli. It doesn't matter what goes on in her private life, what show is a shambles, next time she's out, I'll be there again, with hope in my heart and love in my eyes. I just love her. And when it works, I remember why...

We went and saw the final dress rehearsal for her new show at the Palace theatre last week. And in the beginning, she was so nervous and oddly breathless, that I was worried. My friend, sitting next to me, snarkily said, 'you know she's only 62, she moves like an 80 year old.' And I said, '62 in Liza years, is more than 82 of anyone else's years!' - she's put her body through a lot of punishment, she's had 2 hip replacements and several knee operations and frankly, she moves like it. She moves hesitantly and painfully.

I've never seen such a warm and idiosyncratic audience. There were women with their faces stretched into kabuki masks of youth, and gay men in their 60's squealing like teenage girls. The audience was more than warm, it was a bunch of theatre moms in the room, all wishing their little egg on. They wanted her to succeed so much, they clapped every time she opened her mouth and gave a standing ovation at the end of the each song.

About the 3rd song in, she sang Charles Aznavour's What makes a man a man... and I thought, so many drag queens dress up and sing as Liza, and here's Liza, pretending to get up and be one of them, a lovely note of solidarity.

After that she got more comfortable, her panting reduced, and her voice opened. Her hand motions are so familiar, those 'jazz hands' that only she could pull them off. And yet she does, because they don't feel 'actory' they feel natural and innate. This is how she moves when she sings. She did tease us about her movements, acknowledging that she is older now 'you know how I used to sit in the second act, well now I sit in the first' as she pulls out a tall directors chair. But sit is scarcely the word as she writhes and moves, creating one perfect visual moment after another. I actually liked her better on the stool, she seemed more comfortable.

And when she sang 'maybe this time' (which was not in the original production but rather had been on her album first, I didn't' know that) I got goose bumps. She just sells it. She believes it and so do you, maybe this time she'll be lucky, as if she's had no luck in her life yet.

And that is Liza's astonishing gift, that she goes on stage is totally vulnerable, all raw nerves and that astonishing voice. So much talent, so little confidence, so much experience and yet no bedrock of knowledge, just that painful, wistful optimism, that maybe this time... for the first time...

Oh, it was a magic night.

I loved the second half less - it was all about Kay Thompson, her godmother and songs that she sang in the 40's which are not known now, and when you hear them, you know why... I kind of lost it for about 20 mins, getting restless but happy people watching (it's that kind of audience, they're part of the show). But when she sang New York, New York, the chills came back. To hear that iconic song, by that living legend, in New York. It doesn't get better than that. (ps it's not me shouting in the clip, (I was a good girl and didn't film anything) but it could have been!)

By the end of the show her hair was matted, she was sweating and panting again, and you were swept up in the moment. Liza gives and gives and gives (even in a dress rehearsal!) and you just have to love her for it.

I'm so happy this show is a success - for the audience and their enjoyment, but also for Liza, who I just love...