Good time with Liberace at Spa

by Don A. Metivier, The Post-Star, August 27, 1980

Liberace made his annual visit to Saratoga Performing Arts Center Sunday, and 11,199 filled the amphitheater for his two shows.

Sellouts are nothing new for the veteran showman, especially at Saratoga, where Liberace, wearing his outlandish wardrobe of furs and spangles, showing his rings, keeping up a constant patter with the audience and playing his “million sellers” on the piano, is an institution.

He is one of the hardest workers in show business. He sweeps onto the stage in a trailing fur cape, waves his rings, and goes on to give the audience nearly three hours of entertainment.

“You want more,” he grins as they stand to cheer. “Well, I wasn’t going any place in particular,” he says as the audience cheers even more while he sits down to play for another 20 minutes.

Liberace has put together the best touring show he has ever brought in his many visits to the Saratoga Festival. He also shares the stage more than ever, devoting large portions of his show to the dancing of the Ballet Folklórico Nacional de México, a 24-member dance troupe, and to singer Marco Valenti.

There is still plenty of time for the piano playing of Liberace, and that is obviously what the large audiences came to see as well as hear.

He is always “going out to slip into something a little more spectacular,” and telling the crowd how happy they have made him by showing up.

He is the complete entertainer. He treats the audience as if each person were a guest in his home, lavishes praise on the other performers and plays just what the crowd wants to hear.

Other musicians may get to the top for a time, but Liberace has been selling tickets at the gate for 35 years and is still a major draw in every section of the country.

He is also singing a lot more than in the past, and although he is no threat to the top vocalists, he gets a song across very well, using his personality more than his voice.

The Mexican dancers are spectacular, and he allows them plenty of stage time, then joins them for the well-known Mexican hat dance, “Jarabe Tapatio.”

Valenti is a powerful Italian tenor who sings all the right songs for his voice and has learned to play to the crowd from a master teacher.

An added attraction of the Liberace show is the Dancing Waters, a number of fountains that change shape, direction and color in perfect coordination with the music.

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