“Liza With a ‘Z’,” the 1976 concert film of Liza Minelli directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, got a recent wonderful revival as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Gia Kourles wrote in the New York Times how Minelli at 26 was a pure “knock out,” and how Fosse was completely taken with her. But aren’t we all! Her charismatic ability to woo a crowd has continued despite a series of physical challenges, particularly to her hips and knees, earned in performing for so many for so many years.

I first met Liza in 2007 when I greeted her at the Nice Airport to escort her and her entourage to a private plane for a one night only performance at the Taormina amphitheater in Sicily. On the way, I had to wonder if she could sustain the rigor and energy that would be needed to engage that crowd. She was returning to this 5000 seat venue after a lackluster response a few years earlier. When she began to playfully interact with the steward on our 30 seat plane, who was painfully awkward giving the predictable seatbelt/oxygen “lesson,” and then offered him a ticket to her performance as we stepped off the plane, I became hopeful. I shouldn’t have worried. The performance was a smash success. She received a standing ovation and continued her success on Broadway the following fall.