Lorna's Back and We've Got Her!

York Theatre Company's publicity for its show Compose Yourself! The Music of Larry Grossman, which will be presented this weekend for five performances only, identifies cast member Lorna Luft with the credit "Guys and Dolls." Regardless of her two years on the Guys and Dolls tour as Adelaide, a starring role on Broadway in Promises, Promises when she was still a teenager and an international concert career spanning five decades, Luft is usually thought of first and foremost as Judy Garland's daughter. Even as an entertainer, she may be best remembered as an adolescent performing with her mother in mid-1960s concerts and TV shows.

Larry Grossman didn't invite her to be in York's revue because of all that. He wanted to work again with the actress who played Peppermint Patty in his 1983 off-Broadway musical Snoopy. Luft followed Snoopy with another off-Broadway role, in the drama Extremities, but moved out of New York not long afterward. She returned for holiday-season engagements at Rainbow & Stars in the late '80s and early '90s, but has been living in Los Angeles and England. Her last appearance on a New York stage was a surprise duet of "After You've Gone" with Rufus Wainwright in his 2006 Judy Garland tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall.

Of late Luft has been busy with her own Garland tribute. She just spent two and a half months touring Australia with her "Songs My Mother Taught Me" concert, then did the show in Las Vegas for a weekend in late June. Earlier this year she took it on a U.K. tour, to coincide with the release of the Songs My Mother Taught Me CD in Britain. The show ran in London's West End in the summer of 2004, and in the States she's performed it in Beverly Hills and Fort Lauderdale.

Luft talked at length about her mother, her children (Garland's only grandchildren) and many other topics—from pop music to politics—during our interview on Wednesday. We spoke over lunch at P.J. Clarke's, a couple of blocks from York's theater in the East 50s. Luft was in the midst of Compose Yourself!'s four-day, nearly round-the-clock rehearsal period. Grossman, composer of the Broadway musicals Goodtime Charley, Grind and A Doll's Life, cherrypicked the performers for Compose Yourself!, and Luft says he has called it "his dream cast." She'll be singing from Grossman's theater scores, as well as the many tunes he's written for TV specials, recordings and cabaret, along with Howard McGillin, Liz Larsen, Jason Graae, Darius de Haas and Nikki Renee Daniels. Grossman will be on stage too, as pianist. For tickets, go to www.yorktheatre.org or call 212-935-5820.

Do you go even further back with Larry Grossman than Snoopy?
Larry Grossman wrote my very first nightclub act. I tell the story in "Songs My Mother Taught Me": I did my first nightclub act at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City; I followed six chimpanzees with gold lamé tuxedos, and a diving horse, and I was introduced as "the scintillating Miss Erna Lust."

How's it been going with Compose Yourself!?
I'm just exhausted. Four days [only for rehearsal]. I thought I was going to sing two songs and go home. Meanwhile, 40 songs later... This show is basically scaring the hell out of me right now. I've sort of gotten into a comfort zone of doing concert work and doing my show, "Songs My Mother Taught Me." Fortunately, I've worked with a lot of the cast before. I've worked with Jason in Snoopy, I've worked with Liz Larsen in Girl Crazy. Howard McGillin and I did this awful movie together—but we had a great time—called Where the Boys Are '84. He was my boyfriend in Where the Boys Are. The only two I haven't worked with are Darius and Nikki, and they're just shockingly talented.
I was fortunate to do enough theater in this town [and to work] with Michael Bennett, with Baayork Lee, with all these great Broadway people that made me a team player. There's something in me that'll always be that, because that's how I was brought up to be in New York. I think that's really important. If you come in with an attitude, they'll knock you down in this town really quickly. I'm really lucky and really proud and really grateful to have that training underneath me to say "I'm with you guys."

Would you like to move back to New York?
I could live here if I had a job. But to come back and start looking for a job now would be really, really tough. I can't lie about my age. I'm 55. You've got a lot of people who have really lived and worked in New York. They are going to get their foot in the door—and rightfully so, they should—before I do.
The one thing that I miss in New York is the camaraderie of the Broadway family. It's something that I'm so pleased hasn't changed. Everybody in New York who is doing a show—they're all in the same boat. They all work together; there's a big family feeling, which they don't have in other places. It's unique and special to New York and the Broadway community.

What did you think of Wicked?
I, um, I'm not the best person to ask about that, because I'm incredibly protective of The Wizard of Oz. When they put The Wizard of Oz on stage, they're doing it with the songs from the movie, I have no problem with it. But when they take it and do something totally different with it, I find myself, um, having big reservations. I wasn't crazy about The Wiz. Maybe that's the purist in me. I'm the wrong person to ask.

What about your upcoming role in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz in England?
I've always tried to stay away from that one piece of history in my family, because it's so iconic. When they offered me the role of the Wicked Witch, to be honest with you, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It's only five weeks. It's outside of Manchester, which I'm thrilled [about], 'cause Manchester's a cool city. I'm going to have fun with it. I'll put a bunch of green stuff on my face. Last time I checked, she doesn't sing. You know what else is nice? I knew Margaret Hamilton. When I lived in New York, I'd sit and talk with her in Ted Hook's restaurant, and she was one of the nicest, sweetest women I've ever known. And I do remember that my mom said to me the hardest thing in The Wizard of Oz was being afraid of her, because she was a lovely woman. And she was wonderful as that character, so I'm pleased to be putting on that pointy hat for her.

"Songs My Mother Taught Me" hasn't come to New York, so tell us about it.

In Australia, the lovely and talented Baz Luhrmann came over and said, "It was like just being in a movie, watching you do that." And I said, "Well, welcome to my life." It's a very sort of honest mother-daughter story. We sing back and forth. It was written by two of the most amazing variety-show icons, Ken and Mitzie Welch. They wrote all the Carol Burnett shows. My best friend is Barry Manilow. He co-produced Songs My Mother Taught Me, the CD. [The other co-producer was Colin R. Freeman, Luft's husband.]

Was it an idea you were kicking around for a long time before you did it?
Everybody kept wanting me to sing my mother's songs, and I wouldn't do it. It was too painful, it was too hard, it was too scary, it was too devastating. But once I had written the book [Me and My Shadows] and done the film, I was comfortable enough to take on this amazing library that I was left. I was really lucky to make the movie, and the movie was really extraordinary, I have to say that. Judy Davis is still a friend of mine. We won five Emmy Awards.
It's a very odd thing to have a legend as a parent. Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon, Lucie Arnaz, Lisa Marie Presley, Natalie Cole, my friend Steve Bogart, Leslie Bogart—I call them the card-carrying members of this very small club. A lot of people have stars as parents; we have legends. Because our parents aren't around to teach us how to behave, we have to find that out on our own. It takes a while to find out how to react, how to behave, how to deal with it all. And deal with it the right way.

What has it been like for your children? Do they know all about their grandmother?
Of course they'd seen The Wizard of Oz. On one of the anniversaries, Warner Bros. sent me all of this merchandise, Beanie Babies and things, and at one point my daughter—she was little—said, "Mom, I'm Oz-ed out." But she said, "It is sort of cool, because I don't know of anybody else's grandmother who's a Beanie Baby."
They know everything. I told them everything when I thought they were age-appropriate to take it in. When they would ask me questions, I would never lie to them. I don't think you can lie to your children—about anything. You have to tell them the truth, but you have to tell it in a way that they can understand it comfortably for how old they are. My daughter sometimes would get emotional and would say, "I wish I knew her." I would try to give her as much of what she was like through my telling of stories, pictures, stuff like that. But they're never going to be able to feel what I felt, because they're not there [with her]. To my children, it's their grandmother. Their grandmother is on a screen, on a CD. They have no human-to-human connection.

Does either of them resemble her?
My daughter looks exactly like her. And my daughter can sing. She doesn't want to!

How old are your children now?
They're 24 and 18. My son is a stockbroker. He wants to come and live in New York. He was in San Francisco for three years and then he decided to come back [home to L.A.]. All of these young kids today who have gone to college...they move back in with their parents! My daughter is moving to San Diego in three or four weeks to start college. It's nice because it's still in the state, but it's far enough away that she will have that experience of being on her own. She wants to do cosmetology. That's just fine with me. They have no interest in show business. Because they've grown up in it, they see the good side and the down side. They find it to be insecure, unbalanced.

What do you remember most about performing with your mother when you were a child?
Those feelings that I still feel today—an excitement and a fear. People ask me today do I still get nervous. Hell, yeah! Because I came from a show business family, and that kind of theater training that I went through—studying at the Herbert Berghof school here in New York—what I got [from that] is, I want to give 110 percent. That, to me, is really important, especially today. People pay a lot of money, so you have to show up and do your job, and you don't want to screw up. That's frightening. The day that you're standing in the wings and you're not frightened is the day you go home. That's when you hang it up.

Do you still think of your mother whenever you're on stage?
No. I'm aware of her when I'm singing "Songs My Mother Taught Me" and she's on the screen. Not other times. But I do know everybody else is.
On my 50th birthday, I was offered to do a production of Gypsy in Virginia. I'd never thought of doing the role of Rose, but I had two options: I could go and do this, or I could be really sad in a room with people singing "Happy Birthday." I'm going to Virginia. When I was learning it—which, for my money, is one of the greatest librettos in the history of Broadway—I couldn't stop myself from sobbing. I told the director I did not know what was wrong with me. I thought maybe because I was turning 50. And the director said, "Uh, you're playing your grandmother." I realized I was playing this horrible woman who did to her children what my grandmother had done to my mother. It was really shocking. Then I understood this woman, and it made it more real to me.

What besides the songs themselves did your mother teach you?
I think one of the most important lessons to learn as a singer is, yes, the melody is important, but the lyrics are something that will be with you forever. And how to convey that, and really tell a story to an audience.
It's taken me a long time, and I've listened to a lot of people, and I find that there's a big difference between a performer and a recording artist. A performer is out there making the audience feel that they're going on the journey; the recording artist is isolated. Some performers may not have the vocal ability as some of the recording artists, but I'd rather go see a performer. A recording artist is never going to connect with their audience the way a performer does. There's that wonderful thing between the audience and the performer, and that's what my mom taught me. And that's something that is lacking today, because everybody is out there trying to do vocal aerobics. [Pause] But do I love American Idol? Yeah!

Do you vote for it?
I didn't vote this year because I was in Australia when it was all going on. But I did vote for my friend Marlee Matlin on Dancing With the Stars.

How do you know Marlee?
She came to see me sing, and we just became really good friends.

For many in your audience, it's a very emotional experience to see you perform—before you even open your mouth. How does that affect you?
I'm aware of it, and I understand it. But that's their deal. I just go out and do my job. All of the card-carrying members of this club get it! So I'm not by myself.

Have you had troubling incidents with fans?
Oh, yeah. Let's put it this way: It's not going to ever stop me from doing anything, but I'm also not going to be stupid.
I have a terrible situation at my house: I live right near Britney Spears. So it's 24/7 paparazzi in front of my house. Me and the police department are like this right now, 'cause they've been at my house a lot. The difference is, when I was growing up, there was a line in the sand the press did not cross. There was protection of the studios. There's no more line, there's no more protection, there's no anything, and everybody's got YouTube. So you have to take responsibility on how you behave.
I feel horrible about these paparazzi coming out and scaring kids—they jump out at little kids when they're at school. That's way over the line. But just like we've got the performer and the recording artist, there are performers and there are celebrities. If you are getting drunk and falling out of a car and not have knickers on, what can you say? You know who's my hero as far as all that goes? David Letterman. Because he's on television five nights a week and you know nothing about his personal life. He protects his privacy. So when people say, "Oh, you can't do that!" Oh, yes, you can. Look at David Letterman. I love him.

You do have a website and a MySpace page.
Somebody's doing it for me. My management office set it up, did it for me, and people would come to me and say, "I was on that," and I had no idea what they were talking about. As my children can tell you, watching me send an e-mail is—as they would say—sad. I just got a Raspberry—or a BlackBerry, or a Strawberry, whatever the hell it's called. And it's taken me days to figure out how to do it. My son said, "Put my number in first, because you will be calling me saying, 'What do I do with this thing?!'" I'm not very computer-savvy at all.

So you don't know about all your MySpace friends?
I haven't a clue. Do I know any of these people? That's nice, I have friends. I like that.

Have you been wearing that peace-sign necklace for a few years now?
I have a girlfriend in Los Angeles who makes jewelry. This is one of her things. Isn't it funny that we've all gone back to the '70s? George Bush dragged us right back to the '70s, didn't he? Gas prices and a war—whoopee! Been there, done that, right?
I do think this election is going to be really amazing. You have to know what the issues are, who you're going to vote for, and you have to vote. Otherwise, you can't bitch. It's my daughter's first election, and I think that we're going through an incredibly interesting time. Especially because I live outside the country so much and hear what people say about America. We need a PR campaign, to just have us liked again.
Look, I've been a stone cold Democrat for a long time, and I've also been a fan of Barack Obama's ever since he came into the Senate. People say, "He doesn't have experience." Look where the people with experience have gotten us! To me—and this is just my opinion, as Oprah would say—it has the feeling of he's our Bobby Kennedy.

The song "My Eyes Adored You" starts playing in the restaurant, and Lorna abruptly switches the subject to Jersey Boys.
Can I tell you how much I loved that show? I stood up and was screaming like a lunatic. And that's one thing I do love about the Broadway stage. There's all of these new things that you're seeing. It's so refreshing and interesting that we have a choice now of going and seeing all sorts of different things in New York. It's not just revival after revival. And I think the revivals that they're picking are fantastic. If I had one bit of time when I wasn't learning a Larry Grossman song, I'd be in the theater.

Photos of Lorna, from top: rehearsing this week at the York Theatre; with the Compose Yourself! team (clockwise from left): Jason Graae, Howard McGillin, Darius de Haas, musical director David Snyder, Larry Grossman, Liz Larsen, Nikki Renee Daniels; with Barry Manilow at the Grammys; with her daughter, Vanessa, in Beverly Hills, April 2007; with her mother, Judy Garland; offstage during Compose Yourself! rehearsals; performing in London last year with Rufus Wainwright. [Compose Yourself! group photo by Ben Strothmann; photo with Vanessa by Dave Edwards/DailyCeleb.com]