By Mary Ann Bourbeau
ASBURY PARK – To honor singing legend Judy Garland on the 50th anniversary of her death, the Axelrod Performing Arts Center and the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park are co-presenting the first re-creation of her historic April 23, 1961 concert, “Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall.” The event will take place at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 23 at the Paramount Theatre.
Garland’s concert has been hailed as “the greatest night in show business history.” It will be performed note for note with a 40-piece orchestra. Garland’s daughter, Lorna Luft, who was 8 years old when she attended her mother’s concert, will host the event and sing a few numbers along with four other vocalists.
“Judy Garland is the definitive musical icon and no single lady could possibly hold the stage for two hours and do Judy justice,” said Andrew DePrisco, Axelrod’s artistic director who organized the tribute. “So we decided to hire five amazing singers and 40 musicians.”
The planning was done in conjunction with the Judy Garland Concert Restoration Project, Madison Marquette and Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s biggest LGBTQ organization.
“I was looking for an event to celebrate the Stonewall riots’ 50th anniversary, and the coincidence or impetus of Judy Garland’s death made me think of this ‘greatest night in show business history,’ ” said DePrisco. “These arrangements were commissioned by Judy Garland from the great arrangers of the day. She sang 28 songs that night and famously shouted out, ‘We’re going to stay all night and sing them all!’ ”
After bouts with alcohol and pill addictions, Garland was hoping the concert would resuscitate her career. Dozens of major celebrities attended, including Julie Andrews, Mickey Rooney, Marilyn Monroe, Ethel Merman, Leonard Bernstein, Katharine Hepburn, Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon.
It was one for the history books – the double album from the performance topped the Billboard charts for 13 weeks and won several Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Female Solo Vocal Performance.
In planning the upcoming event, the Judy Garland Heirs’ Trust connected DePrisco with singer Michael Feinstein, an icon of the Great American Songbook and close friend of Garland’s other daughter, Liza Minnelli. Feinstein led him to Minnelli’s former musical director Michael Berkowitz, who has worked with the likes of Stephen Sondheim, Marvin Hamlisch, Hal Prince and Jule Styne.
Berkowitz handpicked the singers for this show: Karen Mason, Debbie Gravitte, Joan Ellison and Gabrielle Stravelli. They will sing all 28 songs in their original orchestrations, including “Over the Rainbow,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “The Trolley Song,” “Stormy Weather” and “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You.)”
“I’m humbled, excited and proud,” said Tony Award winner Debbie Gravitte. “Judy Garland’s epic Carnegie Hall performance turned us all into instant fans, devotees and above all, it proved to the world that many of us deserve second chances in life.”
Ellison is a Judy Garland specialist and has been personally involved in the restoration of the Carnegie Hall orchestrations. She also portrayed Garland in a touring production of “The Boy from Oz.”
“I am so humbled and grateful to be given this chance to help preserve Judy’s legacy,” she said. “Getting to stand on stage as all of these arrangements come back to life at once, in the company of these wonderful performers, is the biggest thrill I could ever imagine.”
Garland’s death in June 1969 coincided with the Greenwich Village Stonewall riots that launched the gay rights movement. Mason, one of the original stars of Broadway’s “Mamma Mia” and replacement for Glenn Close in “Sunset Boulevard,” is honored to perform in the show as both a tribute to Garland and the LGBTQ community.
“This concert is, for me, perfection because I get to express my utmost support for the LGBTQ community and human equality through the music of my idol, Judy Garland, who exemplified compassion, intelligence and inclusion,” she said. “You listen to her songs and you feel like you know her, like she’s talking to you and sharing something very personal. It inspires me as a singer. Every note is full of intention. There’s a specific way she approaches songs that is so obvious, yet the rest of us haven’t figured it out yet. Once you hear her sing, you understand why she is the legend that she is.”
Tickets are $42 to $79 and are available at ticketmaster.com. For more information, visit axelrodartscenter.com.
Arts and Entertainment writer Mary Ann Bourbeau can be reached at mbourbeau@tworivertimes.com.
