![]() ![]() But soon Judy’s image faded and Liza’s came into focus.” When she sang, there were echoes of Judy, too the old catches and wavers and throbs that made a song sound as if it were going through a nervous breakdown. She certainly did look like her mother several rainbows ago. Of Minnelli’s opening-night performance in Flora, LIFE wrote: “She acted and danced with an awkward, captivating charm, threw out ‘What-am-I-doing-here?’ looks, sang in a voice that boomed and belted, quivered sweetly, and occasionally got out of control which only added to her likability. She had performed with her mother at the London Palladium and had done a little work Off-Broadway but Flora the Red Menace would be her highest profile role to date, the gig that would nudge her out of the shadow of her famous parents and into another spotlight entirely. Liza, of course, was no stranger to show business: her mom was Judy Garland, her dad was the director Vincente Minnelli. Here presents a series of pictures most of which never ran in LIFE of a legend in the making. Liza allowed Eppridge into her spirited Flora rehearsals, and even invited him to her 19th birthday party in New York City, but in the end LIFE published just one of Eppridge’s photos. They would team up on such Broadway classics as Cabaret-later made into a movie starring Minnelli in her Oscar-winning role as Sally Bowles-and Chicago. Also on the show’s creative team was composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. She was about to debut on Broadway in Flora the Red Menace, in a role that would make her, at the time, the youngest woman to win a Tony Award for lead actress. In March 1965, when LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge spent time on assignment with Judy Garland’s enormously talented daughter, Liza Minnelli, Liza was just turning 19 and launching what would prove to be a monumental career of her own. ![]()
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