What the hey.................??????????
March 13, 2005, 7:57PM
A birthday surprise
By SHELBY HODGE
Add one unexpected star to the stage at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Saturday night. In a surprise appearance, Liza Minnelli joined Michael Feinstein (Yes, that Feinstein!) at the piano for the closing of his cabaret-style performance that highlighted the center's benefit dinner, "A Night at the Regency."
Toward the end of his program, Feinstein invited Minnelli onstage from the wings, where she had been watching the show with Lynn Wyatt (socialite wife of Oscar).
It was the songbird's birthday and, after the audience joined Feinstein in singing "Happy Birthday," the two pros entertained with several duets.
Minnelli, Feinstein and his partner, Terence Flannery, arrived in Houston Friday afternoon just in time to change and make a dinner party at the River Oaks home of Lynn and Oscar Wyatt, where Minnelli bunked during her stay.
It was birthday cake for dessert. But the real treat for the 20 dinner guests? Minnelli and Feinstein's impromptu concert in the Wyatt drawing room.
Saturday, Lynn Wyatt entertained the three New Yorkers over lunch at bistro moderne, where chef Philippe Schmit delivered several birthday desserts to the table. The birthday piece de resistance — the ice cream bombe loaded with sparklers.