Billy Stritch and Dick Scanlan, creators of our new Lyrics & Lyricists production, take you behind the scenes.
“For someone who spent so much of her life in the spotlight, Judy Garland’s ability to express our common humanity was astonishing. She was unafraid to reveal her wounds in words and music, and her irrepressible humor steered her clear of the maudlin,” says Dick Scanlan, writer and director of the upcoming Lyrics & Lyricists production Judy on TV!: Celebrating The Judy Garland Show (May 6-8).
Scanlan is part of a creative team brought together by 92NY for a Judy Garland Centennial celebration with a completely unique look at her legacy – through the lens of her television show of 1963-64. The team is helmed by longtime L&L favorite Billy Stritch as host, music director and arranger, who says, “We’re celebrating Judy in a way that has never been done before. Along the way, we uncovered a treasure trove.”
Judy on TV! takes the audience on a journey, celebrating one of the world's most iconic artists through the television show that lasted just a single season, but which Scanlan says, “encapsulates Judy’s entire story.” Stritch and Scanlan look at the show’s beginnings from the perspectives of both Garland and CBS – who scheduled it to compete with NBC’s megahit Bonanza – how the format and episodes were created, how it was received by both the public and the critics, and the impact it all had on Garland, who poured her heart and soul into it, and who saw its cancellation as a personal failure.
“What Judy never knew,” says Scanlan, “is that those shows would become a good 50% of the bedrock of her legend. It is an archive of 26 hours of concert material that never would have been captured! Judy is considered the greatest concert performer in the history of show business. And we would have had only audio recordings to reflect that. That’s what makes the TV show pure gold: without it, our understanding and appreciation of Garland would be very different.
Bringing the Lyrics & Lyricists production to life is a fabulous cast of impassioned Garland fans and Strich’s musical friends and colleagues: Aisha de Haas, Gabrielle Stravelli, Alysha Umphress, and Max Von Essen. They perform numbers from the television show that were among Garland’s signature songs, including “The Man That Got Away,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “The Trolley Song,” “You Made Me Love You,” “Over the Rainbow,” and others. They reimagine its classic duets with stars including Diahann Carroll, Lena Horne, and a young Barbra Streisand, including a medley capped by their indelible “Get Happy”/”Happy Days Are Here Again.” And they present songs that Garland sang on television for the first time, like “Paper Moon,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “As Long as He Needs Me,” all supported by select and revelatory clips and images from the broadcasts. Scanlan says, “The sublime performers in Judy on TV! were selected for their talent, but as we’ve created this celebration, each of them has revealed the myriad ways in which Judy’s penchant for telling the truth through consummate musicianship inspired them.”
Stritch says, “The Judy Garland Show launched on CBS just two years after Judy’s legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert and, while short-lived, is a time capsule of an artist at the very top of her game. We’re paying tribute to that at Lyrics & Lyricists with a production that will truly feel like a party.”
“At the end of the day,” says Scanlan, “it’s the triumph of the artistry, the sheer talent of the person, and the seemingly infinite ways Judy could express and apply that talent that outweighs the human sadness of her personal story. The television show is a key part of Judy’s immortalization. We’re thrilled to be shining a spotlight on it, and to be bringing it to today’s audience for the very first time.”
Judy on TV!: Celebrating The Judy Garland Show – May 6-8, performances Saturday, 7:30 pm, Sunday 2 pm, Monday 7:30 pm. In person only!
The Sunday performance is made possible by the Estate of Kathyrn W. Stein.