"Quiet Please, There's A Lady Onstage"

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

On June 22, 1969, the world lost a fabulous singer, actress and gay icon:  Judy Garland.  

 

[PalJoey]

 

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

How  nice of you to post that, PalJoey.

[mamaleh]

That was a lovely scene evoking a wonderful memory; thanks for posting.  All the times I saw THE BOY FROM OZ, I never failed to marvel not only at Hugh Jackman's talents but at Isabel Keating's spot-on portrayal of -- essentially a tribute to -- Judy Garland.  Keating even narrated a PBS program about the late legend some years ago.  

[BrodyFosse123]

God bless us all for Judy Garland - in all her incarnations: actress, singer, raconteur, you name it.  

 

And I also want to add to the praise of Isabel Keating's chillingly spot-on Judy Garland.  In the footage it's magical but having seen her "live" in THE BOY FROM OZ countless times, on the Imperial Theatre stage it was just mind-blowing.  Her stage exits left you literally breathless.  No one has ever truly brought Judy back to life like Keating did.  Not even the fantastic Judy Davis.    

[PThespian]

I don't know. Tracie Bennett was pretty damn good in End of the Rainbow. She was even Tony nominated. 

[BrodyFosse123]

Isabel Keating and Tracie Bennett were both nominated for their personifications of Judy Garland.  But with all due respect to Ms. Bennett, she didn't resemble nor sound nor personified Judy Garland.  She herself has stated that she didn't want to imitate Judy Garland but treat her as a character.  Keating deliberately chose to imitate Garland AND succeeded.  

 

Isabel Keating as Judy Garland:

https://youtu.be/0OzxH6X4s38

 

Tracie Bennett as Judy Garland:

https://youtu.be/-CS3XvXAfm4

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0nQ6CS3I7E   Judy and Judy in "A Star Is Born".

[PThespian]

I find them both pretty damn good. 

[PepperedShepherd]

Bess Motta plays Judy in the current production of "The Boy from Oz" at the Celebration Theatre in L.A.   (Which just got extended again. It's now playing to the end of July.)

I finally get to see it on Friday (so excited!) Even though this clip isn't from the show, I'd say that Bess pretty much nails the 60s era Judy.

https://youtu.be/I6g-yN2ZBFU

P.S. I never got to see Judy live, but at least was fortunate enough to see the late, great Jim Bailey. https://youtu.be/re9qjEd71v8

[GavestonPS]

Yes, indeed, PJ, thank you very much! That clip makes so much more sense than just hearing the song on the CD. Merely singing four lines faster and faster (as is done on the recording) makes it seem they couldn't figure out what to do with the number. Going right into the Stonewall Riots (mythology or no) makes much more sense.

[darquegk]

On the live Peter Allan album, the song doesn't speed up quite as much but it grows into an increasingly rollicking, joyous tune the longer the playout goes. By the time it climaxes it sounds like an outtake from "Phantom of the Paradise."

[PalJoey]

Many people thought Tracie Bennett was a talented woman giving a accidentally offensive performance that was devoid of insight and misconceived with no intention of respect, reflecting only a cynical condescension masquerading as compassion. 

Others felt it was nothing more than melodrama.

Despite her awards, she had none of the brilliance and compassion of Isabel Keating or Judy Davis.

[jo]

Another clip showing Isabel's tribute portrayal of Judy in THE BOY FROM OZ --

 

 

 

 

[GavestonPS]

PalJoey said: "Many people thought Tracie Bennett was a talented woman giving a accidentally offensive performance that was devoid of insight and misconceived with no intention of respect, reflecting only a cynical condescension masquerading as compassion. 

Others felt it was nothing more than melodrama.

Despite her awards, she had none of the brilliance and compassion of Isabel Keating or Judy Davis.

 

"

I think that throughout history the line between "condescension" and "compassion" is in the eye of the beholder. We've seen as much in our own civil rights struggles of the past 100 years.

Frankly, I had heard such awful reports from the Judy fanatics that I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Bennett in END. I expected two hours of Judy-sung-badly and, of course, there were only a couple of minutes of that. Otherwise, I thought the play and performer's intention was to show a great star trapped by her own celebrity, an intention accomplished if neither smoothly nor brilliantly.

I certainly agree that Keating's is the more fully realized impersonation, but while impersonation worked well in BOY FROM OZ, it might have quickly worn thin in END OF THE RAINBOW.

And both women had to make the best of uninspired material.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

PalJoey, your descriptive insight reminds me of someone much loved who is no longer with us:  MargoChanning.   (sigh)

[backwoodsbarbie]

She was a true broad. I don't think we have any of those among this generation of Broadway stars. 

[lovebwy]

I came to Judy late in life. I mean, I loved her as a child in Wizard of Oz, but we all did.

It wasn't until my heart was aching over a broken romance, and I watched her sing "The Man That Got Away" that I finally got it. The way she expressed heart break and disappointment with her voice was poetic. When she sang "the road gets rougher, and lonelier  and tougher" it was clear that she knew from what she sang. Her struggles were and ARE our struggles.

By the way, I saw Tracie Bennett in Los Angeles and I thought it was just terrible. Judy crawling around on the stage like a dog, pretending to pee on things? She deserves better than that. I didn't enjoy that play at all.

 

 

[Scarywarhol]

 I thought Tracie was absolutely brilliant when I saw End of he Rainbow in London, but I heard she got broader as the show continued, moved to New York, LA, etc.

[GavestonPS]

According to those who knew her, Miss Garland was witty, intense, highly sexual, broadly and hysterically funny, and, yes, even vulgar at times in real life. (One might also infer that she was bipolar.)

How would those of you from Our Lady of the Endless Rainbow church have dramatized her?

[darquegk]

Sounds like the conflict of images that sunk the Freddie Mercury movie. Sacha Baron Cohen and his producing team wanted to make a gritty, real and complex evaluation of Farokh Bulsara, the brilliant, crude, macho, femme, pansexual, hooker-loving, drug-taking rock superstar; Brian May and the team wanted a more saintly, sanitized depiction of Freddie Mercury: Lover of Life, Singer of Songs, to match the image of him as Britain's Bob Marley that they've decided is the official narrative.

[MichelleCraig]

Check out some clips of Judy being interviewed by Jack Paar. He loved her and she was obviously comfortable with him. What a great raconteur...even though she was prone to a little exaggeration. They're all on YouTube...

[lovebwy]

GavestonPS said: "According to those who knew her, Miss Garland was witty, intense, highly sexual, broadly and hysterically funny, and, yes, even vulgar at times in real life. (One might also infer that she was bipolar.)

How would those of you from Our Lady of the Endless Rainbow church have dramatized her?

 

"

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.

[lovebwy]

Yes, Judy is a fantastic raconteur on those Paar shows. She was on-point when he wasn't too far gone with the drinks and such.

[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.