Live at the Winter Garden

Live at the Winter Garden is the second live album by American singer and actress Liza Minnelli, released in 1974. It is her second release under the Columbia Records label.

The recording took place during some of the shows of the tour titled Liza, which consisted of 24 shows held at the Winter Garden Theatre, located at 1634 Broadway in the heart of Manhattan, New York City.

The LP was released in April 1974, and the promotion included full-page advertisements in American magazines, such as Billboard magazine.

Due to contractual conflicts, the album was withdrawn from circulation shortly afterward because it included songs from the film Cabaret, whose soundtrack was still in the market. Thus, it became a rare - and even considered lost - title in Liza's discography. Eleven of the fourteen tracks from the soundtrack appeared on the compilation Cabaret... And All That Jazz: The Liza Minnelli Anthology, released by the Salvo label.

In 2012, Masterworks Broadway released the album in its entirety on CD and digital download, marking the first time the performance was officially available in these formats. Three live bonus tracks were also part of the re-release, including "You and I" by Stevie Wonder and the classics "It Had to Be You" and "My Shining Hour."

Liza tour
Bob Fosse is credited as the director. He had previously directed Minnelli in the 1972 film Cabaret, for which she received an Academy Award in the Best Actress category. Collaborating with Fosse, Ron Lewis served as the choreographer. Marvin Hamlisch was the musical director, and the songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb contributed with original songs.

Regarding the show, the singer said, "The thing about doing a show like 'Liza' is that every song means something... Fred and John were so brilliant in constructing the show, plus I had Marvin, so we tried all kinds of vocals and finally got what you hear on the album, and thank God it worked! You keep trying, and you're not satisfied with anything less than the best."

In the selection of tracks included in the set list, Minnelli sings re-creations of her already classic songs, such as the pot-pourri from Cabaret, as well as songs from the Great American Songbook, like "Shine On Harvest Moon." Regarding the inclusion of older songs, some sung by her mother, she said, "For me, there are no new or old songs. There's just good music and good lyrics. In general, I choose songs for my repertoire more for the words than for the melody. And I don't look for just beautiful words. I like lyrics that tell a story, if possible with a beginning, middle, and end. Those are the songs that best reflect the yearnings and feelings of the audience, the ones that capture their attention the most because they are part of everyone's life."

Box office
Within thirty-six hours after the opening of the box office at the Winter Garden Theatre, all seats for the three-week run had been sold. To celebrate the success, the singer's father, director Vincent Minnelli, gathered over 350 people at the Rainbow Room Center (located on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza at the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City), despite initially expecting only a few guests.

Critical reception
The reviews from the music critics were mostly positive.

William Ruhlmann of the website AllMusic rated it three and a half stars out of five, and wrote that the album brings "a typically effective live performance by Minnelli and clearly just a memory of the actual show that could only be completed by seeing and hearing her."

The reviewer from Billboard magazine praised the repertoire and Minnelli's interpretations, selecting "Exactly Like Me," "Natural Man," "I Can See Clearly Now," and "Cabaret" as the highlights.

Commercial performance
Commercially, it spent four weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. It debuted at number 188 on May 18, 1974, and reached its peak at number 150 on June 1, 1974.

With the 2012 re-release, the album reappeared on the Billboard Top Cast Album chart, reaching number 5 on May 26, 2012. The following week, it remained in the same position, marking its last appearance on the chart.

Personnel

 * Produced by: Gary Klein
 * Arranged by: Ralph Burns, Billy Eyers, Jack French, Jonathan Tunick, Billy Reddy, Peter Matz & Fred Werner
 * Remote Engineer: Phil Ramone
 * Remix & Editing Engineer: Don Puluse
 * Location engineers: Aaron Baron, Larry Dahlstrom
 * Recordists: Hank Altman, Tom Dwyer
 * Cover illustration: Joe Eula
 * Back cover photos: Arthur Maillot, Robert Deutsch
 * Back cover design: Karen Lee Grant

Musicians

 * Rhythm: Arthur Azenzer, Frank Bruno, Norman Jeffries, Don De Marco, Jack Cavari
 * Brass: Al Di Risi, John Frosk, Lew Gluckin, Ronald Keller, Vincent Fanuele, Wayne Andre, Fred Zito
 * Woodwinds: Al Ragni, Dennis Anderson, Lewis Del Gatto, Walter Kane
 * Strings: Max Cahn, Tobias Bloom, Joseph Goodman, Marie Hence, Elmar Ollveira, Ian Wint, Sandra Robbins, Nina Simon, Maurice Brown, Bernard Fennell
 * Percussion: Eric Cohen, Charles Roeder
 * Orchestra personnel manager: Earl Shendell