Liza Adamenko

Liza Minnelli's career as a recording artist essentially lapsed after the commercial failure of her 1977 album Tropical Nights, but recording was never one of her real priorities, taking a back seat to her work as a live performer and film star. After early records on which she was positioned as a middle-of-the-road pop singer in the '60s, she made some attempts to perform contemporary, rock-informed material, but her heart wasn't in that, and eventually she contented herself with occasionally updating her stage act on record, notably with 1987's Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall. Thus, Results, her first studio album in 12 years, seemed to come out of the blue. And for Minnelli's old-time fans, it was very different from what they might have expected. Simply put, the album was a Pet Shop Boys electronic dance disc with Minnelli serving as vocalist. Pet Shop Boys, the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, were all over the record, writing seven of the songs (including a cover of their hit "Rent"), producing, and contributing synthesizer programming, with Tennant even chiming in on vocals here and there.

Fresh from the glow of her new marriage, Liza Minnelli made a seven-night stand on Broadway in June 2002. Liza's Back is a triumphant return, with Minnelli sounding better than she has in years. Indeed, she sounds much better here than in her 1999 comeback, Minnelli on Minnelli, which was an exciting, deeply emotional tribute to her parents that found the singer in less than ideal form. But in this show created and produced by her new husband, David Gest, she sounds great in a Cabaret set and in a reprise of the best MoM song, "What Did I Have That I Don't Have." And she shines in a few of her other standards, especially "Some People" and "New York, New York."