Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli – together!
Ok, not actually singing together. But when five-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga played Madison Square Garden last week as part of her Monster Ball Tour, Liza Minnelli and Billy Stritch were in the audience and, of course, went to meet Gaga backstage.
The Playbill blog reports Gaga’s recounting of her teachers’ advice:
‘You know, you’re never gonna play the heroine, and you’re never gonna play the blonde. You’re never gonna play the ingénue. You’ll never be the main character. You’ll never be the star, because you have dark hair and you’re too ethnic.’ So, I used to say, ‘Well, what about Liza?’
Photo by Billy Stritch
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
