The Story of Liza with a "Z"

Sometime during the early 1970's I remember watching a television concert starring Liza Minnelli, which was called Liza with a "Z". I really enjoyed the zestful and lively performance of Miss Minelli, who can sell a song in the same way as our own Shirley Bassey.

Despite the success of the show -  the production won four Emmy Awards, Outstanding Achievement in Choreography (Bob Fosse, choreographer), Outstanding Achievement in Music, Lyrics and Special Material (Fred Ebb and John Kander, composers), Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy, Variety or Music (Bob Fosse) and Outstanding Single Programme - Variety and Popular Music (Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb, producers, and Liza Minnelli, star). It was nominated for a further three Emmy's in film editing, music composition and writing. The film was also won a 1972 Peabody Award and a Directors Guild of America Award. Fosse's Emmy win meant that he had won an Oscar a Tony, and Emmy all in the same year - it disappeared from the face of the earth.

Some time later an LP [12" Long Playing Record] was released of the show, and this became a best seller - in total it spent twenty three weeks in the top 40, and achieved "gold". Then after that - nothing.

Imagine my delight when I discovered that the show was to be released on DVD in a remastered print with 5.1 digital sound.

Over the intervening years, the original, which the producer had insisted should be filmed on 16 mm film, and not the fairly recently utilised videotape, had been carefully stored in the vaults of NBC. Liza Minnelli had bought the rights to the film, and only occasionally had she screened it for her own private use.

In the 1980's the original negatives of the film were lost, and feared destroyed, but in 1999 they were tracked down and found in Los Angeles and New York! In 2005 Liza Minnelli revealed that with the assistance of Michael Ackrick she was having the film restored!

Bob Fosse, John Kandar and Fred Ebb, who had been involved in the original film introduced her to Robert Greenblat (The President of entertainment for "Showtime"), and he agreed to finance the restoration of the film, broadcast it, and release a DVD of the film.

The newly restored film was accepted as an entry into the Toronto International Film Festival and the  Hampton's Film Festival in 2005, and broadcast on Showtime 0n 1st April 2006.