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. 

"Hello Dolly!" at the California Music Theatre in Sacramento

                On June 20. 2016 I went with a group to see “Hello Dolly!” at the California Music Theatre in Sacramento. ” This is a classic musical that I had never seen so I was glad to sign up. I knew it was about a character named Widow Dolly Levi, matchmaker who set her cap at Horace Vandergelder, with Music & Lyrics by Broadway legend Jerry Herman and choreography by Gower Chapman. Carol Channing had played “Dolly” in the original Broadway production in 1964 and Barbra Streisand in the 1969 movie. 

 Many recorded the title song including Sinatra, Bobby Darin and jazz musician Louis Armstrong. There is a funny story attached to the Armstrong recording. In 1964, his agent persuaded him to make some recordings of show songs.  About three or four months later while they were playing their usual jazz numbers in Nebraska, the audience called out for “Hello Dolly!" Without him knowing it, the recording had become a great hit on the radio and jukeboxes and he had completely forgotten he had recorded it and had to send for the music. They put the number in the act, with Louis playing the 32 bar trumpet solo and singing the chorus. The first night they played it, pandemonium broke out and his recording became the No.1 Song in the United States for several weeks. This had never happened to a jazz musician before and in 2001, his version was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Anyway, back to “Hello Dolly!” in Sacramento. The thing that struck me was the excellence of the orchestra conducted by Craig Barra who has been with the Music Circus for almost thirty years. They were so sharp and bright so I felt we were in for a good show. 

I was pleased and delighted to see there was more than just Dolly Levi (Lynne Wintersteller) and her antics in this show. The romantic leads were actually a middle-aged couple Cornelius Hackl (John Scherer) in love with Irene Molloy (Jacquelyn Piro Donovan)and he gets to sing the beautiful  “It Only Takes a Moment”  to his love. 

Above everything else, the dancing captured my attention. In the second act, we get to see the classic “Hello Dolly!” number set in the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant. Rudolph (John B. Williford) and the six waiters entertain us with “The Waiters’ Gallop.” Cheers to the costume designer for their outfits: the combination of white spats, apron and shirts with black shoes and pants highlighted with red bow tie and waistcoats and their magnificent dancing were the highlights of the show for me. Dolly Levi enters the restaurant and the theatre explodes as she greets each of the waiters.

A lovely uplifting afternoon!   

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella or Ella at the Orpheum Theatre, San Francisco

On Wednesday May 4, 2016 I set off with a group from my community happy to be leaving  Vacaville for a while. Our driver, from All West took us on Route 37 so that we could cross into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge, always a thrill no matter how many times one does it.

Lunch was at the Beach Chalet overlooking a grey sea, often that way in the city. I enjoyed Kale Salad, Grilled Salmon and a “to die for” New York Cheesecake.

We drove along John F. Kennedy Drive through the 1,027 acres of Golden Gate Park, which is larger than Central Park in New York. We were luckily enough to Carolyn Roy with us; she had worked with the Golden Gate Police Dept. for 30 years and knew so much about the park.

The area was originally sand dunes and from the 1870s John McLaren (Superintendent of the Park for 53 years), worked to design the park, initially planting 60,000 trees from all over the world.

We saw many of these trees on the drive along with lakes, a soccer field and golf course. We passed two windmills, a herd of buffalo, and beautiful gardens in front of the Stow Lake Boathouse and Japanese Gardens, along with the Conservatory of Flowers which uses re-cycled water.  We passed the many buildings of the California Academy of Sciences; the Planetarium, National History Museum and the new Aquarium along with the new building housing the deYoung Museum.  

The musical was enchanting in this lovely old theatre filled with moms with little girls in their party dresses, retirees and tourists. The singing, dancing and costumes were perfect but I think most of us were curious about how they managed the transformation of Ella and the Fairy Godmother’s costumes on stage right in front of our eyes!   Many of the songs were familiar to us particularly “In My Own Little Room,” “Impossible” and “Ten Minutes ago.”

The Prince, was impossibly beautiful — be it if slightly unworldly! The Producers of this show had developed the characters of the two ugly stepsisters to make them more interesting. One was a comedian who kept the cast and audience laughing all through the show with her antics. The other sister was in love with the local social activist and after the couple becomes friends with Ella, the three of them work to open his eyes to inequities in his land, and everyone lives happily ever after.

 A special mention is given to Lauren Sprague as Marie, the Fairy Godmother!