Photo by Berry Berenson. Title in Bob Fosse's handwriting. Collage by Lauryn Johnson. Liza wrote: “At moments like this you keep your focus on the show and shut everything else out. Unfortunately, we had one headache that threatened to unravel the whole shebang. Halston had designed stunning costumes, and one stood out. I'd be singing the Joe Tex pop song 'I Gotcha,' and while you might love the performance, you couldn't take your eyes off my bright red, sequined, oh-so-very-

Liza in her "Mein Herr" costume designed by Halston for the Liza with a 'Z' filming. Liza wrote: “Our work on Cabaret would have exhausted the most energetic cast and crew. For God's sake, we all deserved a rest. For me, though, the hard work suddenly got harder. In the weeks before the Academy Awards, Fosse, Kander and Ebb, and others were busy planning a television special for me that, if it succeeded, would once again break new ground. At the time, TV variety shows blendin

International Posters for the original release of Cabaret American, Italian, French, Czechoslovakian, Japanese, German, Polish,

Liza arrives at the 1973 Academy Awards March 27, 1973 “At that point in time, the Oscars ceremony was still a hometown celebration, as well as a global broadcast. I was facing an audience packed with people whom I'd grown up with, a community I knew. It was an echo of the feelings I had eight years before at the Cocoanut Grove. But the stakes were much bigger now. Before the night began, the unspoken buzz in the room was: Is this little girl gonna make good tonight? Will she

This number was cut from the film Liza with a 'Z' which aired on NBC, but the work print was found and edited using Fosse's original editing notes so this is true to his vision for the number. Liza wrote: “When I first read the shooting script, [of Cabaret] there was a blank space right after the emcce introduces me in the film for the first time. The screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, a woman, noted that a Kander and Ebb song-as yet unwritten— would fill this scene. And what a

Fosse directs Liza. Photo from the Fosse/Verdon Collection at the Library of Congress “Fosse also had a lot to prove with Cabaret, and he didn't play it safe. […] Fosse's earlier film debut as the director of Sweet Charity had bombed-and his future was not secure. Now, he was determined to make a film that some called an "anti-musical," a show for people who didn't like musicals. It's true that he and his producers had titanic clashes over casting and content as filming progr

The countdown to Liza at 80 at Carnegie Hall has begun! To mark this milestone evening, we will be celebrating this week by sharing archival photos, videos, and interviews on the collaborations between Liza Minnelli and Bob Fosse. Liza wrote: “Fosse had a profound influence on me as a singer, dancer, and actress. Dance has always been my first passion— it gave me my own lane—and Cabaret offered me an opportunity to show the world what I could do. Fosse knew this and brought a

Diana Adams on Agon: “I don't remember ever sitting around discussing dancing with him. Even with something like Agon, I tried not to analyze, because then I might give too much significance to a gesture, like when I put my hand on Arthur's wrist. I knew it wasn't meant to be a sentimental gesture. It had to do with part of a movement and I would spoil it if I started to think about it. In Agon the movements were so intricate that you really didn't think in terms of whose li

Arthur Mitchell & Diana Adams. Photos by Martha Swope, 1957 Diana Adams remembers that Balanchine wanted to compose the pas de deux before setting any of the other dances; this implied to her that he felt it would give him the key or approach to the rest of the work. Says Mitchell of that famous part, "The pas de deux is like seeing live sculpture. Before your eyes, the dancers move from one fantastic pose to another, but you don't know how they got there. Balanchine said, "T

Albert Evans and Wendy Whelan. Photo by Paul Kolnik Wendy Whelan describes the impression that Balanchine's Agon made on her when she saw it for the first time at age 14, while spending her first summer in NYC as a student. "That summer, I witnessed ballerinas spinning across the stage so ridiculously fast that I almost felt blinded by them. I was spellbound by a team of Amazonian women in red kilts kicking their legs so high and with such attack that it left me breathless. I

Photo by Martha Swope, 1958. From Edward Villella's autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic "One day Balanchine stopped me and matter-of-factly told me that I was going to be the understudy for Todd Bolender in Agon. I thought this was terrible news. Agon was probably the single most complicated work in the history of classical dance up to then. I was still trying to adjust to the sounds of the music. It was the first time I had been ex

Edward Villella and Patricia McBride. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1961. Harry Ransom Center. Edward Villella on Symphony in C: “I loved ending with this ballet. It was something I knew I could really do—it suited my abilities. I could hear the audience gasp and hear the round of thunderous applause when I made my first exit during the movement. The gasp and the applause rang out again when I did the repeat. It stirred me up, higher than I'd ever been. (left) Francisco Moncion & Melis

"If there ever was any doubt that Balanchine was the greatest choreographer of our time, this doubt was dispelled when the curtain came down on his Symphony in C. Here is a classic ballet that will go down in history as the finest example of this thrilling art form. “Symphonic ballet at its greatest, it builds with ever-mounting force to a thrilling cli-max. The fifty dancers on the stage at the same time not only give exhilaration to the final movement of the ballet, but mak

In her recently published memoir, she tells the story of appearing on The Judy Garland Show at 17: “Mama’s third episode, to my great surprise, was entirely built around me. It aired November 17, 1963. We rehearsed dance numbers intensely, and she looked on with pride as the show came together. It felt like my very own special. I was teary-eyed when Mama opened the evening singing a tender version of Uncle Ira’s lyrics to ‘Liza.’ There were large images of me from childhood t

In her recently published memoir, she tells the story of dancing with Gene Kelly: “Just before my thirteenth birthday, I went to a party at Uncle Ira's house. Gene Kelly, one of my dad's best friends, was there, and we gathered around the piano as he sang "For Me and My Gal." I joined in, and Gene told me how much he loved my singing. Then he made a stunning offer: He would soon be taping the first of several TV shows, and he asked if I'd do a singing and dancing duet of the

In her recently published memoir, she talks about her first professional onstage appearance with her mother Judy Garland—headlining a concert at the London Palladium at 18! It was a trial by fire and she had to learn to hold the stage and make her own name next to her competitive mother. "London was going mad with Judy Garland fever. Fans stampeded the box office for tickets, and the November 8 date quickly sold out. A second concert was set for November 15. When Mama walked

Footage from the American Musical Theater Archive 1986. Ann Reinking stars as Charity in the Broadway Revival. Ann Reinking (Charity), Mark Jacoby (Vittorio Vidal), Bebe Neuwirth (Nickie), Allison Williams (Helene), Carrie Nygren (Ursula), Irving Allen Lee (Daddy Johann Sebastian Brubeck) Quinn Baird, Christine Colby, Alice Everett Cox, Kim Morgan Greene, Jan Horvath, Jane Lanier, Fred C. Mann III, Tanis Michaels, Dana Moore, Allison Renee Manson, Michelle O’Steen, Kelly Patt

Written by Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times , 1984: "What could any choreographer nowadays do with imagery of Ancient Greece that would not look like a cliché? Jerome Robbins supplied the answer at the State Theater with beauty and subtlety Thursday night in the world premiere of his "Antique Epigraphs" for the New York City Ballet. "Rarefied in tone but immediate in resonance, ‘Antique Epigraphs’ is, above all, a work rich in associations. Some of these pertaining to the musi

Jillana in Serenade. Photo by Martha Swope, 1959 Jillana in I Remember Balanchine : “My fondest memories are of Serenade. I loved doing the Dark Angel. Even though there was no real story in it, I always had a story. I would make up different ones when I danced it, and I danced all the parts from top to bottom. I would make up stories about being in love with Nicky Magallanes and trying to get him away from whoever the other girl was, pulling and pushing. I made it into a lov

Stephanie Saland, Simon Schumacher, Helene Alexopolous, Jerri Kumery, Kyra Nichols, Maria Calegari, Victoria Hall, Florence Ftizgerald. Photo by Martha Swioe, 1984. Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times , 1984 “The curtain rises on eight women, standing in profile in single file to the right of the audience. The azure blue surface of a bright Aegean Sea or its dazzling southern sky dominates the opening moment, introducing this Hellenic world of the imagination. “The all-female ca