Farmers Alley brings ‘Liberace’ back from the dead
KALAMAZOO, MICH.–Liberace was a man who invites stereotypes. It’s easy to make assumptions about who he was and why he did the things he did.
Brent Hazelton’s one-man musical, Liberace!, now playing at Farmer’s Alley in an extended run through May 20, challenges its audiences to look beyond the glamor that was Mr. Showmanship and see the man, Wladziu Valentino Liberace, from age 3 until his death and even the days after his death.
When David Maiocco takes the stage as Liberace, one of the first things he tells the audience is that he is dead—and even shares a few tidbits about heaven. He also tells us that we’re all going to be ourselves—that he’ll be himself, Roger on lights will be Roger, CJ on sound will be CJ, the stage hands will be stage hands, critics will be critics, and the people who come in late will be the people who come in late.
But, of course, it’s the first sign of subterfuge, since we all know he isn’t actually Liberace, but an actor playing him. Which is a level that Hazelton returns to several times throughout the two hour and 50 minute musical.
This show is done as part of a partnership between Farmer’s Alley Theatre and the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival—their third collaboration. It’s the type of collaboration that is needed to make a show like this work, for the actor cannot just be an actor, he must be a skilled piano player capable of the mesmerizing and highly complex music that Liberace was known for playing.
In this dual role, Maiocco performs excellently. It is easy to forget you are watching an actor and to lose yourself in his piano playing and his portrayal of the famous entertainer. He doesn’t hesitate to build a connection with the audience. He frequently talks about how he wants to give love to his audience and receive love in return and Maiocco pours that love out unselfishly. He makes eye contact, he winks, he makes himself vulnerable and strives to find the most authentic way to communicate.
As he tells the story of Liberace’s youth, he paints the picture of a child prodigy who was the child of Polish immigrants in a small Wisconsin town during the Great Depression. He was no stranger to poverty and when he was a teenager, it was his work in strip joints and speakeasys that helped bring in money for his family to survive.
Hazelton’s book provides the narrative of how Liberace achieved his fame and some of the critical moments in his life’s journey. He includes all of Liberace’s trademarks from the candelabras to the fancy rings to the famous songs to the catch phrases he became known for. He includes his response to critics that he and his brother “laughed all the way to the bank.”
But Hazelton dug a little deeper than that and showed how some of the comments of critics did in fact affect Liberace and led him to change what he did. He talked about the struggle of what voices to listen to, those of the critics or those of the voices in his head.
The examination of Liberace’s response to critics, especially the London critic “Cassandra” whom he sued for libel, also led into the exploration of Liberace’s sexuality. It’s easy for us in 2018 to look back and say, “Of course, Liberace was gay—just look at him.” It’s easy to forget now that in the 1950s, that would have destroyed his career. Even in the 1980s, Liberace was deeply closeted and was only outed by a coroner dead set on proving he died of AIDS.
It’s easy, also, for us to forget from our modern perspective how damaging it was for someone to live in the closet, and that even all the riches and fame that Liberace had couldn’t balance out the psychic damage he experienced from constantly hiding who he was.
Liberace!, directed by Kathy Mulay, works on a lot of different levels. First, there is the pure entertainment. Maiocco provides outstanding piano playing that is a mix of classical, pop and boogie woogie. Second, there is the storytelling that starts out as the Liberace-style friendly anecdotes and grows into something more touching and meaningful as the musical goes on. Finally, there is the message and the metaphor throughout the story, one Hazelton weaves seamlessly through the story until the ending’s final powerful image.
Liberace! isn’t just for fans of the late entertainer. There is something in this story for you even if you’d never heard of him before. You’ll enjoy an evening of fine piano playing and a very compelling story that will encourage you to examine whether you are able to be who you want to be or whether you are letting external forces, whether they are parents, critics, society or yourself, hold you back from being yourself and being open to all the love the universe has for you.