Michael Feinstein's Tribute to Judy Garland on Oct.1, 2016 with Lorna Luft & Liza Minnelli at Feinstein's at the Nikko, SF

Jon Perdue, Rob Mills and I met with Jack Wood in the lobby of the Nikko Hotel in great anticipation for this Judy Garland tribute. Jack and Jon had shared many of their stories with me about seeing and meeting Judy in years past and I had included them in my book, Always for Judy: Witness to the Joy and Genius of Judy Garland, (pub. 2014, Yarnscombe Books) so we were very happy to be together again sharing the joy and magic of Judy.

Liza Minnelli had been in the audience on the previous evenings and so we hoped we would see her also. Just before the show started, we were all delighted to see Liza appear and sit in the audience with us.

Michael started by saying that this show was a tribute to the talent and artistry of Judy Garland.

Michael is just not a ballad singer; he has done his homework working for years to preserve and music of the composers and lyricists of the Broadway Theatre and Hollywood Musicals (1920s-1950s eras). In 2000, the Library of Congress appointed him to the National Recording Preservation Board. Therefore, Judy’s music is his music!   

He opened the show with “That’s Entertainment” a song in tribute to the great musical movies of the past. The two television screens at the side showed excerpts from these movies, not Judy specific. I imagine he has used this as an introduction to other events, as he regularly does shows about the great composers and lyricists of the past in the theme of the Classic American songbook.

I had never seen Michael perform before and found I was pleasantly surprised at his warmth, charm, and range of his voice.

His first Judy song was “Just in Time” using the Kay Thompson’s arrangement, which was so perfect because Kay had been Judy’s dear friend and Liza’s godmother. He really nailed it in true Judy fashion. His voice had enough power to do justice to “her rendition” of this so well- loved song among the Judy fans. He went on to mentioned that although Judy often sung the old remembered songs from her movies occasionally she found a new one and sang for us “I’d Like to Hate Myself in the Morning” by John Meyer. He finished this opening segment with “Swanee.” This last song was such a favorite of Judy’s and she often sung it as an encore at her concerts. (I had been lucky enough to have been taken by her to the EMI recording studios one day in August 1960 and sat three feet behind her when she belted it this number with the Norrie Paramor orchestra. It is in the London Sessions CD, so it was particularly nostalgic for me.)   

Michael talked about the The Wizard of Oz and then went to the piano saying “If you know the words please don’t join in…except one person,” referring to Liza. Then he sang the song which had been sung to Dorothy in this movie; the Scarecrow’s lament, “If I only had a brain;” then the Tin Man’s,” If I only had a heart” and finally the Cowardly Lion’s, “If I only had the Nerve.”

He brought back the musicians and introduced pianist Colin Freeman (Lorna’s husband who had taken time out as musical director of The Little Mermaid to be part of Michael and Lorna’s tribute to Judy,) bassist Daniel Fabricant and percussionist Mark McLean, who had been with him for a while.

Michael introduced Lorna Luft who quickly went into a rousing version of Judy’s “San Francisco.” She told us afterwards how she had spent quite a bit of time in this city because her son had attended San Francisco State University and she figured she had helped with the city’s economy by the number of parking tickets she had paid during that time! Lorna has a wry sense of humor. She added that she would be back here again during the holiday period appearing in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas. (Both Jack and I have tickets for this.) She chatted about how happy she was to be with us and that this show was a party. She told us that she was anticipating the birth of her third grandchild as her daughter-in-law had gone into Labor at 10 am this morning. She was very excited about this new addition to her family. She introduced the next song by telling the oft-told story of how Judy first heard strains of “The Man that Got Away” on the golf course when Harold Arlen hummed the tune and later that day Judy sang it for the first time in the Palm Springs Club House. Lorna has a quite different way of handling this torch song. She doesn’t sport the sweet smile of her mother, but puts a great deal of dry humor into the hurt that the songstress is experiencing, remembering this broken love affair. Good for her! Then she went on to talk about Al Jolson’s influence on her mother and sang his song—which has now become Judy’s song: “Rock-a-Bye my Baby with a Dixie Melody.” 

The show was very fast paced and it is difficult to be sure just what happened next but it may have been Michael’s melody of Judy’s songs including “Our Love Affair,” “This is my Lucky Day,” “Zing went the Strings of my Heart, “Get Happy,” “I feel a song coming on,” ending with a rousing “Come Rain or Come Shine.”  

Then he told the story of how Judy had explained to Hugh Martin—composer of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and other songs for Judy—when they were together at the Palace in 1951 why people were so effected by her sad songs “I always smile when I sing Torch Songs.” (So true, I had wondered about that often.) He went to the piano again and sang a medley including, “Look for the Silver Lining,” from the movie Till the Clouds Roll By,  Noel Coward’s “If Love Were All,” George & Ira Gershwin’s “But not for me,” from Girl Crazy and Irving Berlin’s “Better Luck next time” from Easter Parade.

He brought Lorna back onto the stage and they decide to do the Judy/Barbra Streisand’s duet “Get Happy/Happy Days are here again” from Judy’s CBS Television series. Some of the songs included in medley were, “After You have gone,”  “By Myself,” “S’Wonderful,” “How about You?”  “Hooray for Love,” “You and Night and the Music,” “It All Depends on You” and then going into the finale of “Get Happy/Happy Times are Here Again.”    

The show ends with Michael—echoing what I had said in my book, “Judy will be a part of our culture for 100, 500, and even 500 years in the future”

(p.243)—talking about how the legacy of Judy Garland will go on forever and he sang the song Judy loved the most, “Through the Years,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

The show ended but not quite, because Lorna came up again and introduced her sister saying, “You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family. I am so lucky. I am so lucky because a woman who has been so supportive of me, and has been there when I’ve fallen down, when I’ve gotten back up, and she has always said to me ‘We’ll go through everything together.’ And, I am very, very fortunate because she is here to night. Ladies and gentlemen—my sister Liza Minnelli!”

Michael and Lorna brought Liza onto to the stage and she settled herself in a director’s chair. Michael asked, “What should we do?” “It’s up to you, whatever you want,” replied Liza. Michael asked, “You want to do a song about this big black instrument?”

Then Liza began the opening verse of “I Love a Piano.” Her mother had sung this song in the movie, Easter Parade. Liza has a particular magic all her own and every movement, turn of the head, gesture is unique and she really enjoyed herself having fun with this song.

It was great to see her well and happy being with Michael, who she is obviously exceedingly fond of, and with her sister. She commented how she loved hearing Lorna singing Mama’s songs.  

It was a happy occasion celebrating the joy and magic of Judy Garland. As I mention in my book, although Judy is gone “We are lucky enough to hear her voice when her two beautiful daughters….sing.” (p. 242)

Thank you to Michael, Lorna and Liza for a beautiful evening and bringing back so many memories.