Liberace at the Garden State Arts Center

When the Garden State Arts Center first opened in 1968, artists and entertainers frequently booked for a week’s evenings of entertainments before moving on.

    Included in that week was always a luncheon with reporters on the first day to ensure tickets would be sold throughout the week. As a writer for The Courier, one of my assignments was to always attend the lunch, write that story, then attend the performance and write another review of the show.

  Liberace was always a favorite when he came each year, always in good humor, always with plenty of time to spend with reporters, always laughing at himself and telling stories about his expansive wardrobe. He always posed for photos and always brought new talent with him, so we reporters were also sure of getting albums or gifts of some kind at the luncheon.

  Here’s a story I wrote in 1979 after Liberace’s performance. He was great.   

Liberace is fantastic. It makes no difference that he has been at the Garden State Arts Center every year for the past ten years. It makes no difference his show varies little from year to year, except in the splendor of his costumes. What matters is that Liberace loves to perform, loves to play the piano and loves to sop up the adulation of the audience. It all makes for a most enjoyable evening.

At the Arts Center every night now through Saturday, Liberace comes on stage at the very beginning of the show, resplendent in a Norwegian blue fox cape with a 16 foot long train that coordinates with his silver and white sparkly studded tuxedo. He doffs the cape almost immediately and makes six other changes through the course of the evening, each of them more spectacular and more sparkling than the one before. His candelabra is alive and well and still ensconced on his Steinway’ his jokes are the same as previous years and his repertoire of tunes is basically a repeat.

But that’s the stuff the Liberace fans love. He’s found himself a tidy little niche and he’s not about to rock the boat. You know the joke about how he laughs all the way to the bank? Well, this week he said he’s bought the bank. And, he joked, he’s looking into the Art Center because he likes that, too.

For the serious music lover, Liberace is a talented enthusiastic musician. You could tell without his mentioning it that Chopin is his favorite composer; his rendition of a Polonaise is unforgettable. And he really doesn’t need the colorful and electronic-inspired Dancing Waters to enhance his renditions of the Waltz King, Straus. But it is an attractive addition. His Gershwin is flawless.

Yet even with his bent for the classical, and his obvious enjoyment of  it, Liberace can swing into Eddy Duchin or modern day tunes with aplomb and talent. And that’s where his show differs;  as talented and polished as he is at the piano he really does seem to improve every year. His show is a study in musical excellence with a variety that’s unbeatable and matchless.

As always, Liberace brings new talent with him, and he’s excelled in that this year, too. Young Marco Valenti is an Italian tenor with a personality to match his talent. He’s sensational .And it doesn’t make any difference whether you like opera or not. When you hear his arias from Rigoletto and Pagliacci, you might become a devotee. Light and moving, no heavy opera, but definitely outstanding. He’s exciting, dynamic and the possessor of a gorgeous resonant voice.

The real excitement however comes in the form of the Chinese acrobats of Taiwan, a talented bunch of youngsters and not-so youngsters who put on a mini-circus right before your eyes, complete with a lady magician who makes a gorgeous young lady disappear under silk scarves. The young man who climbs atop four empty bottles on top of a little stand takes top prize for putting electricity into the air and exudes a personality even more charming than his graceful balancing talent. There’s a beautiful colorful dance with scarves and a glittering dragon, some highly talented unicycle rides and an awful lot of enthusiasm in the Taiwanese performances.

There’s no doubt about it’ Liberace knows the audience comes to the Art Center to see a show; he guarantees they get it.