LIZ ROBERTSON

Having started performing at a young age with the BBC's Young Generation, Liz's West End career began with 'A Little Night Music', directed by Hal Prince and the revue 'Side By Side By Sondheim', which she subsequently took to Toronto with Georgia Brown. Other London theatre credits include 'I Love My Wife', 'My Fair Lady', 'Song and Dance', 'Kern Goes To Hollywood', 'Sound Of Music', 'Music Man', `Phantom Of The Opera'. 

She starred in an extensive US tour of 'The King and I' opposite Rudolph Nureyev and performed at the Kennedy Center Honors before President and Mrs Ronald Reagan. 

Liz starred in the musical 'Hairspray' at the Shaftesbury Theatre performing Velma Von Tussle and was the original Madam Giry in 'Love Never Dies'. 

She is currently rehearsing the part of Cheryl Gillan in the Donmar's production of 'Committee' which opens June 24th and is performing her cabaret entitled Lerner Without Loewe throughout the year both here and New York. 

THEATRE CREDITS

Give A Dog A Bone, Westminster Theatre, 1974

Mrs Anderson, A Little Night Music, Adelphi Theatre, 1975-76

Understudied Julia McKenzie and Millie Martin, Side By Side By Sondheim, Mermaid Theatre and Wyndham, 1976

Starred in Side By Side By Sondheim, The Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, 1977

Monica in Cy Coleman's and Michael Stewart's, I Love My Wife, Prince of Wales Theatre, 1977-78

Eliza Doolittle in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of My Fair Lady. Touring 1978-79. Adelphi Theatre, 1979-80
Olivier Nomination Best Actress in a musical
Winner of Variety Club's Best Newcomer. 

Jessica Mitford in The Mitford Girls, Chichester, 1981

Starred opposite Len Cariou in Alan Jay Lerner's and Charles Strousse's Dance A Little Closer, Minskoff Theatre, Broadway, 1983

Song and Dance, Palace Theatre, 1983-4

Kern Goes To Hollywood, Donmar Theatre, 1985 and Broadway, 1986

The Kennedy Center Honors, The Kennedy Center, Washington DC, 1985

Jessica in Killing Jessica, Savoy Theatre, 1986-87

Elma Melton, Canaries Sometimes Sing, Albery Theatre, 1987

Harriet Telligan, Touch of Danger Tour, 1987-88

Eliza in My Fair Lady, Opera House Manchester and Birmingham Hippodrome, 1988

Bella Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes The Musical, Cambridge Theatre 1989.

Anna in The King And I opposite Rudolph Nureyev, USA tour. Carbonell Award Best Actress in a musical 1989-90

Maria in The Sound Of Music, UK tour and Sadler's Wells, 1991-93

Let's Do It, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1994

Marian Paroo, Music Man, Regents Park Open Air Theatre and U.K. Tour 1995.

Beethoven's Tenth with Peter Ustinov Chichester 1996

Mavis in Stepping Out The Musical, Theatre Royal Plymouth 1996 and The Albery Theatre London, 1997

Hey Mr Producer, Lyceum Theatre, 1997

Madam Giry, Phantom Of The Opera, Her Majesty's 2002-2003

Narrator, Tuppence To Cross The Mersey, 2004

Joanne, Company , Derby 2005

Liz Ferber, Touch Of Danger, UK Tour, 2007-08

Velma in Hairspray, Shaftesbury Theatre, 2008-09

Madam Giry, Love Never Dies, Adelphi Theatre, 2010-11

Madam Giry, Phantom Of The Opera, 25th Anniversary, Royal Albert Hall, 2011

Mrs Du Maurier, Finding Neverland, Curve Leicester, 2012

Phyllis in Follies, Toulon Opera House, 2013

Valerie Hobson, One Woman Show, Jermyn Street Theatre and U.K. Tour, 2014-2016

Cheryl Gillan, The Committee, Donmar Warehouse, 2017

Miss Andrew, Mary Poppins, Prince Edward Theatre 2020-

TV

Good Life
Green Green Grass
4 Royal Commands
Song By Song By Porter
Speechless

CABARET

The Ritz Hotel
The Pheasantry
The Hippodrome
Crazy Coqs
54 Below New York
Don't Tell Mama New York. 

RECORDINGS

Just Liz
A Little Night Music, London Cast
Maria, Sound Of Music
Sarah, Guys and Dolls
Kern Goes To Hollywood
Liz Live at Crazy Coqs

CURRENT ENGAGEMENTs

LATEST REVIEW

'LERNER WITHOUT LOVE'

By Ron Fassler – THEATRE PIZZAZZ

If a solo cabaret show is to be devoted to a lyricist who came out of what is now lovingly known as “Broadway’s Golden Age” (1943-1959), you can’t do much better than to craft such an evening on the works of Alan Jay Lerner. And when that soloist is a lovely singer and charming raconteur, all the better. But what makes Liz Robertson a most amusing guide, is that she was the last person to be married to Lerner, who was something of a serial husband. When she remarked she was “Alan’s eighth and final wife,” it brought up a joke for me (one Robertson didn’t include in her act), “That when Alan marries you … that’s just his way of saying goodbye.”

Whip-smart and erudite, well-raised and educated, the fine scores Lerner wrote with his cultured Viennese partner, Frederick Loewe, will forever stand the test of time. Paint Your Wagon, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot and the film score to Gigi, exemplify the team’s quality (and success). But what Robertson sang on the stage of Don’t Tell Mama Friday night (in the return of a show she first did last April) were examples of when Lerner wrote songs “without Loewe.” From the always melodic tunes of Burton Lane, to Kurt Weill’s eclectic originality, to the lush beauty of Andre Previn, it’s an impressive group. Also included are songs Lerner wrote with film composers like Michel Legrand and John Barry, as well as the Broadway veteran Charles Strouse, with whom Lerner wrote his last musical Dance a Little Closer, in which Robertson starred.

Opening with “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” the title song for the first of two Broadway shows Lerner wrote with Lane, Robertson segued into another tune by the team, composed for the short-lived musical Carmelina, “Why Him?,” accompanied on piano by Ron Abel with Ritt Henn on bass. The answers to that question comically served to relate how Robertson, just twenty-five when she first met Lerner, could fall in love with a man thirty-six years her senior. This method served for the rest of the show as a template for how she would tell her stories in song, and it worked splendidly. One sardonically clever lyric, which got one of the evening’s biggest laughs, came out of a song Lerner wrote with pop songwriter Gerard Kenny. In “I’ve Been Married,” Lerner at his Henry Higgins-best wrote: “I have tied the wedding knot/until the blood begins to clot!”

British by birth, Robertson lives full-time outside London, and brings, from over the pond, an appealing brand of sophisticated, European warmth. She is my favorite sort of interpreter; one who sings in an unembroidered style that is always connected to the heart. I particularly enjoyed something written with Michel Legrand, the title song of a 1984 film Secret Places. Considering Lerner passed in 1986, this must have been one of the last he ever wrote. Robertson’s simple rendering of it was stunning, as was “A Million Miles Behind the Door,” written for the 1970 film version of Paint Your Wagon with Andre Previn (during one of those times Loewe was not in a mood to be in a room with Lerner), of which there were more than a few over the years, something Robertson isn’t shy about discussing. All of which makes for a uniquely personal and very entertaining show.

Photos: Maryann Lopinto

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