Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Even now there are few female stars that could hold a candle to the extraordinary all-round performer Judy Garland. A woman who was possibly the epitome of the saying of being born into show business as a famous old trunk in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, could attest if it could talk. She would become the ultimate star of screen as she made hearts melt in film roles such Love Finds Andy Hardy, Strike Up The Band, For Me and My Gal, Meet Me in St. Louis and of course as the young Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.
Audiences fell in love with her at such a young and tender age that looking back on her life, the excess adulation, the many film appearances and the concerts, including the now famous Live at Carnegie Hall show, it’s no wonder that the strain and the cracks began to show on what was arguably the most naturally gifted female performer of the 20th Century.
Time in the end was not kind to Judy Garland and the world lost that natural, easy to love talent one night in Chelsea in 1969 and the voice, aside from the films and recordings, was lost to the world.
Nothing can truly ever recapture that sense of feeling when you hear Ms. Garland sing but it can be harnessed and allowed to breathe, to flow through the air as if the young 30 year old was once more on stage with arguably her best friend Mickey Rooney and entertaining thousands inside the Liverpool Empire Theatre as she did back in 1951.
A night when the Empire Theatre isn’t playing host to a musical or a current band is one of those rare nights in which the eagerness of the audiences is perhaps felt in excess, it is the sign of the comfortable and the true fan of the genre who sits waiting for the band to strike up and for the music to fill every pore and crevice.
With Ms. Garland’s daughter, the ever impressive Lorna Luft, being joined by performers such as the exquisite Louise Dearman, Rachel Stanley, Georgina Hagen and the impressive Ray Quinn, the life and songs of America’s sweetheart was played out once more.
Songs such Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart, the crushing fantasy of Mr. Monotony, A Couple Of Swells, The Trolly Song, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Stormy Weather, which was a particular highlight to many in the Empire crowd and delivered with extreme care and drive by Ms. Dearman, I Got Rhythm and Somewhere Over The Rainbow were all given the attention and respect they fully deserved and for a short while, the music, the songs made famous by a woman who was adored the world over, resonated round the auditorium as if the gracious lady was once more on stage again.
Whilst a night in which pays homage and salutes the past might not be as well received as the latest hit show from the West End, for those that take the trouble to attend such things, to wallow in the tones of one of the true 20th Century greats is acknowledge the sincerity in which their remarkable lives played out infront of a world-wide audience; and they don’t come much bigger than Judy Garland.
Ian D. Hall