Liza's Life Plays Stages Worldwide

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday August 05, 2003 09:58 AM EDT

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Liza Minnelli is getting the stage treatment all over the world this year.

This fall, she figures into the plot of the "The Boy from Oz," a big new musical to star Hugh Jackman as Minnelli's late ex-husband, the gay songwriter and entertainer Peter Allen.

This month, she's due to appear in stage form at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, in a show called "Liza! With Love," although the script had to undergo a last-minute rewrite in the wake of last week's news that Minnelli, 57, and her fourth husband, producer-promoter David Gest, 50, had split.

"The show has been a year in development and then one week in rewriting," the show's director, Andy Locke, tells the BBC.

Actress Liz Flint was set to play Minnelli in this celebration of the singer's life, but the script has now been altered to tell the audience that Minnelli cannot appear because of her marital separation, and Flint now plays a friend who replaces Liza on short notice.

"We had to change various references to her marriage, and we had to cut a song called 'My Own Space' which was going on about how much she loved David," said Locke.

"But as it turns out, (the split) has made the show very current, which means that audiences -- even if they're not massive Liza Minnelli fans -- all know what's going on."