Minnelli looks back for old nightclub feel

A little taste of the glory days of Chicago nightclubs is being lovingly recreated by stage, music and film icon Liza Minnelli.

In Naperville, of all places.

Minnelli will perform a sold-out concert on Saturday at North Central College's Pfeiffer Hall. She'll be backed by four gents, including singer-songwriter Johnny Rodgers, who is no stranger to Chicago's cabaret crowd.

Minnelli will be recreating a nightclub act made famous by Kay Thompson.

Thompson, best known for authoring the Eloise books, was an accomplished vocalist, arranger and nightclub singer. She worked at MGM in the '30s and '40s, putting together vocal arrangements for a bevy of stars, including Minnelli's mother, Judy Garland.

"When you consider Mama named Kay my godmother and Ira Gershwin as my godfather, you know a bit more about how Mama thought of her," Minnelli says.

"She was the greatest gift my parents ever gave me. And it's time to celebrate this incredible person."

In addition to making a name for herself in Hollywood, Thompson, who died in 1998 at age 89, managed to turn heads in a nightclub act that included the Williams brothers before Andy Williams went solo and became a vocal legend in his own right.

"It was a time when people still wore ball gowns out," Minnelli says. "She turned heads because she wore pants. She wasn't doing it for attention, she wore them just so she could move onstage."

She certainly turned heads in the Windy City, when Thompson brought her show first to the Blackstone's Mayfair room in the fall of 1947 (where it smashed attendance records) and then a return engagement at the Palmer House Empire room that following summer.

Writing about the show at the time, the Sun's Irving Sablosky said, "Its precision timing and sharp co-ordination of words, music, singing and dancing makes it one of the slickest affairs in a slick business."

Rodgers, who steps out from behind the piano to play one of the Williams brothers in the show, agrees.

"The style of her writing, the voicing she uses, none of this is typical choral arranging."

Rodgers says the arrangements are filled with tight harmonies with four or five parts, highlighting the gift Thompson had for arranging.

"The tension within chords, the way harmonies blossom; you just don't hear music like this anywhere else. Musically speaking, this is forward thinking even this many years later."

Minnelli had been kicking around the idea about recreating the show for a number of years. The main problem was that no visual or audio recording of the original performance exists.

The 61-year-old legend was just 1 when her godmother debuted the act. Minnelli says the act made quite the impression on her at a young age.

"I was 2 and my parents took me to Ciro's and all I remember were her feet flying all around," Minnelli says with a giggle. "When you're foot level to the stage, all you can remember is the energy."

The memories of dancing feet and anecdotal stories from her godmother gave Minnelli enough of a framework to begin piecing the evening together.

She enlisted the help of singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, who is known for his anthropological approach to archiving songs from the great American songbook to track down arrangements.

Billy Stritch, who plays piano in the show, was able to break down the arrangements for the cast.

For choreography, Minnelli turned to Ron Lewis, whom Thompson had known and admired.

"I really lucked out with Ron Lewis for choreography. He had met Kay. So we started to work and do these numbers. 'Down front in one.' Nobody does this kind of show anymore."

"The choreography is really energetic," says Johnny Rodgers. "Ron has us as the Williams brothers doing more dancing and movement then they did in the original act. It fits so well with what Liza does."

Minnelli says she never set out to produce a carbon copy of the show.

"What I wanted to create was something entertaining that she would want to see," Minnelli says. "I'm not trying to do anything but groove on the numbers."

Minnelli and crew have taken the show to several cities here and abroad. Rodgers says the group continues to hone and refine the act.

"That's what I love about working with Liza," he says. "She's never finished or satisfied. She's always thinking about the next thing that is going to make the show better."

With this show, Rodgers says Minnelli seems to really be pushing herself.

"Liza never rests on her laurels, but she seems to be pushing herself to a new horizon with this show," he says. "She has put so much energy and love into this in particular and that comes across onstage."

Though the Naperville gig is sold out, Minnelli fans needn't fret. Plans are under way to film the show later this year in New York for broadcast sometime in 2008.

"I'm so excited we were able to come to Chicago," Minnelli says before excusing herself to head back into rehearsals for a recent change made to the show. "The show had a history with the city and it just feels right."