Liza Minnelli waved at me!!
I can now die happy.
The concert on Friday night was validation that violently assaulting your keyboard at work to the point that you need to ask your manager for a new keyboard is totally acceptable as a means to procure tickets to see Liza Minnelli.
As The Boyfriend is more an indie-goth who prefers the dulcet tones of Morrissey and Nick Cave over a fiesta of camp showtunes (he hasn't even seen 'The Wizard of Oz'- tsk!), it was decided that my Mother would have the misfortune of sitting next to me.
After jockeying my way through peak hour city traffic and taxis who seem to think indicators are an optional courtesy, I arrived at the dizzy spiral carpark of the Sydney Opera House. Found my Mother who had trained it in to town and then had 15 minutes to scoff a 6 pack of greasy McNuggets and fries. Classy!
Although we weren't late, everyone in our Box had already been seated, so when we showed up the audience in the Box burst into rousing applause and stood up so Mum and I could make our dramatic entrance way to our seats.
...and then she came on to the stage. And she wasn't the tragic wreck everyone makes her out to be. The entire audience gave her a standing ovation before she had even sung a note. It was fabulous.
Resplendent in luminous white sequins, she shimmied her way through Teach Me Tonight, If You Hadn't, But You Did, Palace Medley, Cabaret, Theme from 'New York, New York and Liza with a Z. There were others, but I can't remember them. Probably because I was too busy squealing like a deranged orgasmic piglet.
The show was split into two parts and although her voice is as powerful and as dazzling as ever, she's a bit wobbly on her feet and intersperses her shimmying and theatrics with sitting on a chair. She seemed genuinely flattered that everyone came to see her perform and I think it was her giggling humility that made her so endearing and so engaging to watch.
The audience was a mix of crusty old people in sequins and gay men in sequins with their Mothers, also in sequins. I missed the boat on the sequins, but I came dressed in my best Peter Allen-going-to-Rio flouncy dress. Liza complained on stage "my knickers keep riding up!'' to which one member of the audience yelled "take it off!''. Hehehe. It wasn't me, I promise.
I made eye contact with The Goddess herself twice (Mum has verified this), but the best moment of the show was when I leapt out of my seat and waved my arms about and she turned to me and did the same!! Woo hoo!!
For her encore she came on stage in an oversized t-shirt, pants, sneakers and a towel and dramatically wiped off her make-up, peeled off her false eyelashes and sang a tribute to Peter Allen. It was sweet, but I preferred the rest of her set.
The scary thing is that she looks and sounds exactly like her mother...shortly before she died. She was brilliant, but there was that slight wavering and unease in her composure.
Can't wait til she comes back to Sydney!
Below is my Liza singlet (modelled over dress after concert)
^^Is Fabulous