"Quiet Please, There's A Lady Onstage"

[PalJoey]

What Tracie Bennett did was character assassination.The play was a piece of garbage, but it started out touring the British provinces as a fictional piece about a character who was an amalgam of every faded diva.

Then Tracie and her director got involved and decided that if they made it explicitly about ONE diva and called her Judy Garland, they would attract waaaaaaay more attention.

And then they decided that if she completely trashed Garland and debased herself onstage, they could maybe pull the wool over the eyes of some easily swayed but influential critics and maybe even get some award nominations. Hey, kids, it worked!

Rather than be handed awards, they should have been prosecuted for cold-blooded murder.

 

[PalJoey]

 

For those who have never seen it, this is Judy's legendary appearance on the Jack Paar show. (And for those who have, here it is again!)

Quiet, please, there's a lady on the Tonight show.

 

 

[CarlosAlberto]

To lovebwy: I feel the same way. Of course I grew up with her watching her on the annual "Wizard of Oz" telecasts....but I never really, truly "got" Judy until I saw her performance in "A Star is Born" and heard her sing "The Man That Got Away". Incidentally I was also going through a breakup and it just gutted me. Then I went and watched every film she ever made and read (almost) every book written about her and of course listened to every thing I could get that she recorded.

JUDY

[GavestonPS]

lovebwy said: "Witty, funny, and even vulgar would have been fine. But not crawling on her hands and knees like a dog, panting and barking and lifting her leg pretending to pee. That was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen, frankly.

 

"

I'd completely forgotten it until you mentioned it. It's not something Garland would have done on her TV show or even, perhaps, at a party. But she spends the entire show with close friends and colleagues; the dog bit doesn't seem much more extreme than some of the recollections of her antics that Gerald Clark mentions in his book. (ETA the Clark book is NOT a hatchet job. In fact, it has done much to correct the image of Garland as "Neely O'Hara".)

[GavestonPS]

PalJoey said: "What Tracie Bennett did was character assassination...

"

How so? It's no secret that Garland struggled with drug addiction. And no wonder! If I had to live trapped in a hotel room by crowds of paparazzi, I'd take ritalin, too.

My collection of Garland albums and DVDs compares to almost anybody's, but brilliant raconteur though she was, that too was a performance. If you want an evening of Judy telling funny stories, you could certainly write one. But if you want something more personal--if you want a show with character--then you almost have to show her, warts and all.

[lovebwy]

PalJoey said:

"Rather than be handed awards, they should have been prosecuted for cold-blooded murder."

Slow clap (once again) for PalJoey. Also, Bennett singing those songs as if she had even a fraction of the talent of Judy was absurd in itself.