While most millennial music lovers are obsessing over Beyoncé and “Lemonade,” one young New York singer is focused on a different diva — Liza Minnelli.
The singer is Seth Sikes, and his fandom for the Broadway legend (one of the few winners of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award) is so extreme, he’s devoted an entire show to her beloved standards.
“I don’t really like contemporary music after [her] era,” says Sikes, 32. “It’s weird! Nothing moves me.”
But “Seth Sikes Sings Liza Minnelli,” at Feinstein’s/54 Below on May 2 and June 8, is chock-full of numbers that shake him to the core.
His heartfelt concert has none of the broad humor that’s become so associated with Minnelli tributes, like last year’s “We Three Lizas” at Joe’s Pub.
“When other guys do it, there’s an element of camp,” says Sikes, who also regularly performs an act dedicated to Liza’s mom, Judy Garland. Here there is no irony, no silliness, no impressions, no costumes — just plain old passion for a grand dame.
“I just don’t know another way to do it,” he says.
Sikes’ Liza love started in first grade. A 6-year-old living in Paris, Texas, he wore out the “Liza: Live from Radio City Music Hall” VHS tape with his aunt Stacy, another fan of Judy and Liza. Even 1,500 miles away, the diva made a big impression. “I remember being on the playground and singing ‘Get Happy,’ and telling my dad I wanted to sing ‘Get Happy’ in the talent show,” he says. “When you’re a little kid and seeing that for the first time — I didn’t know that kind of show business existed.”
The 54 Below show features many of the songs he heard on the tape, songs that made Liza famous: “Cabaret,” “Maybe this Time,” “Live Alone and Like It” and his favorite, “Some People,” from “Gypsy.”
Twenty years after encountering “Live From Radio City,” Sikes was in New York, assistant directing off and on Broadway for directors like David Cromer and performing Judy Garland hits — “Stormy Weather,” “The Man That Got Away” — at Manhattan piano bars after hours.
“I would get up and sing a song and let all this stuff out. And I realized people liked it,” he says. Meanwhile, his theater gig wasn’t paying the bills, and he was on the lookout for a new, more lucrative opportunity.
“I was talking to a producer — a big one — about my career change and he said, ‘You are so conflicted, you are literally writhing in your seat. You need to go away and think about what you want to do,’ ” he recalls. That weekend on Fire Island, Sikes decided the first thing he’d tackle would be a tribute to Judy Garland.
He’s since performed that show several times at 54 Below — and made a heap of fans in the process. Audiences there are always tightly packed and brimming with enthusiasm for his booming, jazzy renditions of their favorite songs.
Sikes hasn’t given up on Judy yet, but today, he’s living for Liza.
“When another Broadway person does a show, it’s a totally different experience than watching Liza,” Sikes says.
“What superstar does big shows like that?”