[3] These comeback shows were conceived and produced by her husband, David Gest, marking the end of a two-year hiatus she took due to a diagnosis of viral encephalitis, a potentially fatal illness.

[4][5][6] The album's recordings took place on April 2, 2002, at the beginning of summer, during a week of sold-out shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York.

[3] Minnelli performed many songs associated with her and introduced Liza's Back, written by her long-time collaborators John Kander and Fred Ebb.

[3] The television special of the same name directed by Bob Fosse that year earned the artist and the director an Emmy award.

"[12] Morag Reavley, from BBC Music, wrote that after a series of personal experiences, the songs seemed to have been endowed with new meaning,[13] and that Liza Minnelli's "performance is imbued with an infectious sense of joy in her newly textured and more vigorous vocal abilities, while her conversations with the audience alternate between cheeky and affectionate.