Liza Minnelli recalled the moment her relationship with her mother, Judy Garland, made a major shift in her upcoming memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This.
In an excerpt from the book obtained by People last week, the EGOT winner, 79, recalled taking the stage at 18 in 1964 to perform at the London Palladium with the Wizard of Oz star. The Cabaret actress explained that as she dazzled onstage, Garland was unhappy.
“After my first song [on opening night] I heard her shout, ‘Yeah, baby! Go get ’em!’ After the second song, another ‘Yeah!’ but not quite as strong,” Minnelli recounted in the book. “By the third song, let’s just say she was losing enthusiasm.”
“I heard her whispering to our producer, Harold Davison: ‘Harold, get her off my f**king stage!’” Minnelli wrote. “I just kept singing to wild applause as Mama fumed.”
The Broadway star noted in her memoir that she “had a stunning realization” about their relationship at that moment, writing, “I had begun the night as Mama’s daughter. Now, I was onstage with Judy Garland.”
For the show, Minnelli and Garland performed multiple solo songs as well as duets, including “Together (Wherever We Go)” from the musical Gypsy, “San Francisco” by Jeanette MacDonald, and more, according to the album, which is available to stream.
As Closer previously reported, Minnelli had a complex relationship with her mother, revealing in another excerpt of her memoir that he had to act as a “caretaker” to the Hollywood starlet when she was just 13 years old. Garland eventually passed away from an accidental overdose in 1969.
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This will be released on Tuesday, March 10.