With A Zed

After the torrential rain on Monday and several days of clean-up, Toronto finally had good weather again. So Friday afternoon, I went to a Fringe show at The Annex Theatre on Bathurst. Jennifer Walls (Fairy Tale Ending) had a one-woman show impersonating Liza Minelli in Liza Live! The conceit being that Ms. Minelli wanted to connect with her audience in a more intimate 70-seat theatre. Ms. Walls came out all teeth and show-biz pizzazz which immediately got laughs. At first, it was more of a parodic take, reminding me more of Jessica Holmes doing Liza. But as she inhabited the role more fully, it was an engaging performance:Liza funny and not Liza-impersonator funny.

The show was a mixed of performance and improv as Liza interacts with the audience and even invited two to come up and played the Liza Minelli trivia game show. We heard a little bit about her life, her parents, Vincent Minelli and Judy Garland. That was the shadow cast over her life and the show as well, the presence of her supremely talented and famous mother. Of course, Liza Live would not be complete without several well-known songs: All That Jazz, Liza With a Z (which she changed for her Canadian audience), Maybe This Time. Ms. Walls had the chops to handle those with aplomb. Perhaps not on the level of the real Liza, but on the other hand, she did it mostly unamplified (there was a small head mic buried in her wig for an audio boost). So she could probably shake the rafters through speakers.

I thought the pathos could have been dialed back. Liza Minelli would be a consummate professional and not be so revealing on stage. For example, when Walls sang Over The Rainbow in a cracked voice while looking at a black-and-white video of Judy Garland. Or some of the behind-the-scene "stories". A slight inadvertent peek here or there, to show the woman behind the persona, would have been more realistic. Minor quibble aside, this was a fun and enjoyable hour. Walls' upcoming "Liza and Barbra" show with Gabi Epstein in October should be a blast.