Browse Sections

• Magazine 
• Food and drink

Come, join the cabaret

David Sue
28/ 5/2008

‘THE show must go on’ – it’s one of the oldest phrases in the showbiz rulebook. But for Liza Minnelli, the saying has become a real motto for life.

Now aged 62, Minnelli has been famous for as long as she’s been alive – she made her first film appearance when just three years old.

But being a child star means having to grow up in the limelight, and it’s fair to say every aspect of Minnelli’s growing pains – breakdowns, drugs, family disputes, her many marriages – have been exposed to public gaze.

Befitting someone who grew up in the golden age of Hollywood showbiz, Liza Minnelli has never allowed herself to be defined by personal woes.

A consummate professional, her survival instincts are typical of her origins in a classic American showbiz age.

The daughter of Judy Garland, she was thrust into showbiz at a young age and took to it with relish.

An all-singing, all-dancing force of nature, she made her big breakthrough in the musical Cabaret – the film that defined Liza Minnelli as we know her, the goofy but explosively sexy singing tomboy.

It’s a part she has played all her life with gusto.

Whether singing with Frank Sinatra, lighting up the Broadway stage or starring with Dudley Moore in films like Arthur, Liza Minnelli has always sparkled with Hollywood glamour and elan.

It’s that unstoppable mentality which has brought her to the UK for her first major tour in almost 20 years.

Despite a turbulent decade in which her personal life has been splashed all over the tabloids (yes, THAT marriage to David Gest), Minnelli has emerged from the wreckage unscathed and raring to face her adoring public again.

At 62 years old, she’s become something of a monument to showbiz survival and a joyous reminder of Hollywood’s golden age.

As long as Liza Minnelli is around, the show certainly will go on.

Liza Minnelli will perform at the Bridgewater Hall on Monday, June 2. To check ticket availability and prices ring 0161 907 9000.