Winner of the 2017 Manhattan Association of Cabarets Award for ‘Best Impersonation’ (also Best Duo 2012 for Judy and Liza Together Again), Best Achievement in Performance at the 2007 Dublin Theatre Festival, the 2006 MAC Award for Best Impersonator and the Backstage Bistro Award, Broadway veteran RICK SKYE has taken various incarnations of Liza Live! from New York to Chicago, the Edinburgh Festival, a sold out season in Covent Garden, London’s Apollo Theatre, the Dublin Theatre Festival and many regional theatres in the US. And this week he is bringing the show to London’s Live at Zédel.
Displaying Minnelli’s physical and vocal mannerisms along with a smashing voice, Skye has created an outrageous show, tracing Minnelli’s legendary career. This is an evening of new writing, comedy, characterisation and musical performance.
This time he will also be appearing with [Billy] LYKKEN from New York City’s alt-cabaret scene, who brings his queer brand of comedy and outrageous parody, as well as his interpretations of songs ranging from Broadway, R&B, jazz, and Tin Pan Alley, to the venue in Sacred Monster (with musical direction by Yasuhiko Fukuoka).
This hyper-emotional journey of song, eyelash and pizzazz is filtered through the soul of an often heartbroken, but never bitter, sequined songstress whose eccentricities and self-destructive behaviour are overshadowed by an all-consuming need to please the faithful masses. This cabaret experience has been described as “fusing Alan Cumming with Aretha Franklin.”
Musical Theatre Review’s Patrick Honoré asks Rick and Billy the questions…
Rick, you haven’t been in the UK since 2010, and Liza hasn’t appeared here in over five years. Do you think her lack of exposure might affect your show at Zedel?
RS: Well, the reason I am thrilled to be coming back to the UK is that so many people have asked me to return. Liza Live! began as A Slice O’ Minnelli at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has evolved into its present state over many years. It has always been a valentine to all things showbiz and one doesn’t really need to know anything about Liza to enjoy it.
The first half is parody songs about universal subjects.The second half has numbers that fill you in on Liza’s career – if you like classic theatre songs and a big old-fashioned ending, you’re at the right show!
This time you are appearing with Lykken in his show Sacred Monster, which you directed in New York. How does it feel to be on the other side of the spotlight?
RS: I love it. Lykken and I love all things showbiz from Fanny Brice to Amy Winehouse, so it’s a pleasure to work with a big talent who can take all the songs of the great divas and make them his own. As Liza, I get to be a guest in the show.
Lykken: Liza Minnelli is my goddess and a big inspiration for my show Sacred Monster so I’m very excited to sing with Rick. A ‘Sacred Monster’ is basically a diva, or a lady performer who is just “too much”, but whose eccentricities are eclipsed by her sheer talent and will to perform. So the show is a sort of parody/tribute to all of those ladies from Liza to Bette Midler, Shirley Bassey and Aretha Franklin. I enjoy a hyperemotional performance where the arrangements are big and the heels are high. And just like those ladies I want to make you laugh and cry, then walk out feeling as if something has happened to you.
Are you incorporating new material to this Liza Live! show? Are you doing parodies of songs she did not do or should have done?
RS: I would say about one third of the show is entirely new. The opening number, the encore, and I finally figured out how to include her cover of ‘Losing My Mind’ which was produced by the Pet Shop Boys and was a No. 1 hit in the dance charts in the UK. I am really having fun singing that one.
The Rink recently had a successful comeback in London, do you think there might be a big Kander and Ebb revival in the West End, despite the change of style of music used in many shows today?
RS: Well, Cabaret is an all-time classic show and the last revival began in the West End and is still touring the world. Chicagorecently opened in the West End again and The Rink was a hit. If you add Kiss of the Spider Woman to that list and maybe The Visit, you have shows that I think could be revived at any time. The shows that they wrote before they hit their peak may fall by the wayside, but you never know. With the right stars, Woman of the Year or Zorba might be able to be reimagined for today as well (and I’d love to star in a revival of The Act!).
What is your next project after this show?
RS: I’m already working on an idea about the year I worked at the Hotel Carlyle in New York and met Bobby Short, Barbara Carroll, Elaine Stritch (who lived there), Barbara Cook, Sir Laurence Olivier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Eartha Kitt, Peter Allen, Lena Horne, and on and on and on. I have stories and want to sing the original arrangements that they sang in their acts. It’s something I can do in trousers and no make-up and that appeals to me.
Lykken: One of the ‘Sacred Monsters’ I pay tribute to in this show is Nina Simone when I sing her protest song, ‘Mississippi Goddam’. I put my own sort of twisted comedic spin on it. With the state of the world, it’s such a release to sing it. I’m working on a new show made up of protest songs, hopefully as eclectic and energetic as this show I’m bringing to London.
* Liza Live! is at Live at Zédel from 6-10 August 2018 and Lykken performs on 8 and 10 August.
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