LIZA MINNELLI - CABARET

CABARET

LIZZA MINNELLI

SONGWRITERS: JOHN KANDER; FRED EBB & JEAN-CLAUDE COSSON

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: CABARET

LABEL: MCA RECORDS

GENRE: SOUNDTRACK/POP

YEAR: 1972

 

         Liza May Minnelli(/ˈlaɪzə/LY-zə; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy (Grammy Legend Award), Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.

          Daughter of actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, Minnelli was born in Los Angeles, spent part of her childhood in Scarsdale, New York, and moved to New York City in 1961 where she began her career as a musical theatre actress, nightclub performer and traditional pop music artist. She made her professional stage debut in the 1963 Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward and won a Tony Award for starring in Flora the Red Menace in 1965, which marked the start of her lifelong collaboration with John Kander and Fred Ebb. They wrote, produced or directed many of Minnelli's future stage acts and TV shows, and helped create her stage persona of a stylized survivor, including her career-defining performances of anthems of survival ("New York, New York", "Cabaret" and "Maybe This Time"). Along with her roles on stage and screen, this persona and her style of performance added to Minnelli's status as an enduring gay icon.

          An acclaimed performance in the drama film The Sterile Cuckoo(1969), marked a film breakthrough for Minnelli and garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the musical film Cabaret(1972), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Most of her following films, including Lucky Lady (1975), New York, New York(1977), Rent-a-Cop (1988) and Stepping Out(1991), were panned by critics and bombed at the box office, and she had no more major movie hits except Arthur(1981). She returned to Broadway on a number of occasions, including The Act (1977) for which she earned a second Tony Award, The Rink(1984) and Liza's at The Palace....(2008), worked on various television formats and has predominantly focused on music hall and nightclub performances since the late 1970s. Her concert performances at Carnegie Hall in 1979 and 1987, and at Radio City Music Hall in 1991 and 1992 are recognized among her most successful. From 1988 to 1990, she toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event.

         While Minnelli is known for her renditions of American standards, her early-1960s pop singles were produced to attract a young audience. Her albums from 1968 to 1977 contained contemporary singer-songwriter material. In 1989, she ventured into the contemporary pop scene by collaborating with the Pet Shop Boys on the album Results. After a hiatus due to serious health problems, Minnelli returned to the concert stage in 2002 with Liza's Back and was a guest star in the sitcom Arrested Development between 2003 and 2013. Since the 2010s, she has avoided huge concert performances in favor of small retrospective performances.

"What good is sitting alone In your room?

Come hear the music play.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum,

Come to the Cabaret.

 

Put down the knitting,

The book and the broom.

It's time for a holiday.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum

Come to the Cabaret.

 

Come taste the wine,

Come hear the band.

Come blow a horn,

Start celebrating;

Right this way,

Your table's waiting.

 

What good's permitting

Some prophet of doom

To wipe every smile away.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum,

Come to the Cabaret!

 

I used to have a girlfriend

Known as Elsie,

With whom I shared

Four sordid rooms in Chelsea

She wasn't what you'd call

A blushing flower...

As a matter of fact

She rented by the hour.

 

The day she died the neighbors

Came to snicker:

"Well, that's what comes

From too much pills and liquor."

But when I saw her laid out like a Queen,

She was the happiest... corpse...

I'd ever seen.

 

I think of Elsie to this very day.

I remember how she'd turn to me and say:

"What good is sitting all alone in you room?

Come hear the music play.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum,

Come to the Cabaret."

 

And as for me,

I made my mind up back in Chelsea,

When I go, I'm going like Elsie.

 

Start by admitting

From cradle to tomb

It isn't that long a stay.

Life is a Cabaret, old chum,

Only a Cabaret, old chum

And I love a Cabaret.