Liza Minnelli

Apparently, this live disc was set up to cash in on a “reality” TV show that VH-1 had been fashioning to give the E! Network’s Anna Nicole Smith freak show a run for the disposable incomes of train-wreck fans. VH-1 reportedly got tired of the many demands from Minnelli’s producer, husband and Botox casualty, David Gest, and put the kibosh on the show. Too bad. It would have been a classic. So, we’re left with this, which opens with Minnelli cackling, “Hi everybody!” She immediately launches into the title track, with these choice lyrics (by Fred Ebb and John Kander, who wrote the music for Cabaret): “I took my bottle of pills and tossed them away / I emptied the booze / Went back to AA / Hey Broadway / Liza’s back.” What follows is a sponge bath of mawkish sentimentality fused to the kind of “watch out for low-flying aircraft” buzz one gets from mixing Percodan and vodka—mutant showbiz weirdness. Yow!