Liberace Is ‘Sensational’ At SPAC Weekend Concert

by Marilyn Nason, The Post-Star, June 22, 1970

Liberace and the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band appeared in concert Saturday night and yesterday afternoon at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the only word to suffice is sensational. Both proved to be just about the finest entertainment offered on the plush SPAC amphitheatre stage in much of its five-year history.

Saturday night, in chilly weather before 5,500 and yesterday afternoon to 4,000 Liberace and the tremendous band shared honors and really must divide the accolades in the most delightful, professional, multi-talented, your-money’s-worth-and-then-some performance we can recall.

Regardless of what anyone may think of Liberace, he is rightfully billed as Mr. Showmanship. He clowns and quips with a quick wit, he dabbles at singing and even the softshoe, plays excellent piano, sizes up his audience with true professionalism and is constantly onstage to offer the very best in truly diverse entertainment.

As for the Trinidad Band,their sound is fantastic. For those who have been to the Caribbean Islands, the calypso sounds were especially reminiscent of tropic nights in plush spots in the islands. For those hearing this unusual music for the first time, it certainly has to have been most pleasing to the ear.

Introducing the band, Liberace recalled first hearing them at Expo in Montreal. He described the efforts of the Trinidad natives to find a logical use for the thousands of empty oil drums left after WW2 and their discovery of ways to cut, shape, pound and tune them to become bass, cello, woodwind and strings of an orchestra.

The 23 musicians played everything from “Poet and Peasant Overture” to the “Hallelujah Chorus” and even “Alley Cat” with Liberace, plus excerpts from “Hair.”

As for Liberace, well, he has to be seen to be truly appreciated, as he moved from medleys of Gershwin and “The Last Time I Saw Paris” to “I’Il Be Seeing You,” a thrilling version of “Impossible Dream” and a real rinky-dink bit, “Ragtime Joe.”

Needless to say, his costumes were everything anyone had read or heard. He changed them liberally, about a half dozen during the show’s course, and they became more and more colorful, sequinned, shaped, styled and far-out but, somehow, just right for this excellent performer.

*Remember that bank I used to cry all the way to?”, he asked the audience. “Well, I bought it,” he added, with a meaningful pause as he slowly surveyed SPAC, quipping “and I kind of like this place, too.”

Backstage, he explained that he has little trouble in being fitted for clothes, so “I can usually buy my street clothes
right off the rack anywhere I am.” For his stage spectaculars, he said he relies on Hollywood tailor Frank Cacuza “and he never misses.”

Liberace announced at the end of his concert he had been engaged by the SPAC management to return next August for two more performances.

For many in this area, watching the wonderful Liberace this past weekend at SPAC brought back memories of just about a decade ago, when he performed in the same fine style at the now-defunct Convention Hall in Saratoga Springs.

SPAC reopens Thursday with the national company of “Fiddier On the Roof.” playing also on Friday and Saturday, with 8:30 p.m. curtain each night.