Liza Minnelli is a household name and is in the hearts of many Americans; performers and others. Her story is a simple yet complex series of wonderful events. In this performance she speaks candidly about her mother Judy Garland. Talking about the things that made her a wonderful mother and why living in her shadow, though difficult shoes to fill, where also the most amazing fit. From her success as an actress to her untimely death and the toll that death took on her. She shares with the audience how important they are to her success and all of the things that her mother taught her about being a star and being a woman. With her quick wit and fun energy we see Liza through the eyes of a simple woman who, like many other women before her, just wanted to be herself. In the midst of the loss of her mother she begins to take prescription drugs as a way to balance life. She speaks of the hard reality of her choices, good ad bad. It is a clip from a film, a moment in time, a brief look into the life of Liza Minnelli and all of the things that make us love her as a performer, but on this day we love her as a person as well. (Fiction)
DI/ Female- My Mother's Beautiful Shadow
- (Scene opens with Liza smoking a cigarette. She is content in this moment. She begins to hum a familiar song as she pours herself a drink. She takes a bottle out of the cabinet opens it and takes a few pills with her drink and her smoke. She relishes in the feeling of the pills going down with the alcohol. She looks at the combination of what she's just partaken in. Takes a moment to look at the audience, smiles.) People often think that this is the life that they want. Unlimited money, unlimited fame, a ridiculous amount of supporters. But they don't see this. (She references the pills and the alcohol) This is how I start my morning; sometimes how I spend my lunch, and always now what tucks me in at night. (Laughs) Is this really the life that you want? The money, the fame, the fortune, (Beat) the paparazzi, all of the damn cameras always flashing, the evil things that people say about you that aren’t remotely true, the even worse things that they write about you or your children or your parents, the coming and going and coming and going and the voices of the people that always have something to say. Such nasty, negative things to say. (Smiles) I have so much sass that I started keeping all of the negative articles written about me or a negative review of a show I was in. (She searches for a box, pulls it out opens it, laughs, the box is empty.) No, I didn’t use it as toilet paper but I do use it to start my fires in the living room in the winter. Trashy papers burn better for some reason. (Smiles) As much as all you want to do is sit in silence with a cigarette in one hand and good scotch in the other and kick your feet up and enjoy the beauty of a sunset, it never works out that way. I am Liza Minnelli (Laughs) in all of my glory.