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JUDY GARLAND “World’s Greatest Entertainer”

Book by Greer Firestone

When Dorothy Gale entered Oz, Judy Garland entered

immortality. The movie has been seen by almost every child
who has seen a movie and therefore Judy will live forever in
our hearts. ‘Rainbow’ is the most popular song ever; a
mystical, lyrical and melodic story of a child’s spiritual passage
from adolescence to adulthood. ‘Rainbow’ never fails to evoke
emotion. ‘Trolley Song’ and ‘Boy Next Door’, ‘The Man That Got
Away’ are canonized in motion picture history and are
included.

'The Chairman of the Himself thought Judy ‘The World’s

Greatest Entertainer’. Her incandescent movie and stage
career AND her incomparable gift for touching peoples’ souls
with her magical voice are set against her tumultuous personal
life. But hardly is this a melancholy show. Judy’s personal life
was unstable and lonely – even being the brightest star in the
firmament. Your audiences will be shared facts about her life
that are stunning in respect to her great achievements. They
will admire Judy even more by fully understanding her singular
perseverance.
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Having Liza, Frank and Dean around to sing their signature

songs won’t hurt either. The three of them loved and admired
Judy – and it shows.

The setting is a 1960’s television studio. Framed around the TV

show, ‘This Is Your Life’, Judy and Liza enter the studio and are
surprised by an unnamed entertainment columnist. He will
emcee the proceedings and set up the legendary tunes.
Halfway through the first act, two of Judy’s greatest celebrity
friends, Frank and Dean, join in the act. They celebrate Judy’s
life through song and croon some fan favorites while providing
Rat Pack shtick.

Act II has very little dialogue. Your audience sits back and
enjoys.

Four iconic figures sung by singer/actors who channel their

music; two dozen legendary tunes; one set; minimal costumes
and tech.

I would suggest that a producer/director obtain DVD’s of This

Is Your Life. Additionally, there are many resources to research
Judy. I have personally cast my own production to have the
performers impersonate the sound, style and mannerisms of
the four legendary performers.

With Best of Broadway Productions World Premiere in May of

2007, there will be valuable notes from the director and added
shtick amongst the characters that will find it way into the
final script. The Judy, Frank & Dean material is from their 1962
TV spectacular, “Judy, Frank and Dean – Once in a Lifetime”.
Should your own theatre company license JUDY, consultation
from the writer/director are at no charge and welcomed.

Characters

Judy – at age 39; the more mature Judy

Frank – classic persona of the late ‘50’s and ‘60’s
Dean – same as above
Liza – hyperactive persona – The Liza we know and love from
the ‘70’s
Emcee – NY Times columnist
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Costumes: Multiple costumes for the two women,

reminiscent of their different periods and their
performances. Pictures/representations to be part of
rental/royalty package. (E.g. Judy: Classic Judy in tights,
short coat and fedora for first two numbers w/ black
hose; sequin half jacket w/ toreador pants for end of Act I
and more glamorous sequin gown for Act II. Hobo outfits
for women for “Couple of Swells” ( see EASTER PARADE
with Fred Astaire)
Liza: White suit for Act 1. Short spangled mini skirt for
Cabaret “Sally Bowles”, etc.
Frank and Dean – period suits in Act I; tuxes for Act II..

Set: In the premiere production I will be using two spot

lights. In many of the videos available on Judy, spots were
utilized with much drama. Blown up graphics of Judy pr shots
flown around set and highlighted during appropriate numbers.
Liquor bar SL stocked with bottles. Two bar stools.

Music: Combo OR fully orchestrated CD. Venue’s choice. CD is

added cost. BoB Productions Premiere show incorporated
synthesizer and drums.

Atmosphere: 1960’s TV station. Intimate, interactive

conversations with Emcee, Judy and Liza. All parties speak
directly to the audience and, if possible, play the audience.
Dean & Frank do their shtick with atmosphere of ‘spontaneity’.
Depending on theatre environment, the more Las
Vegas/cabaret type of feel that can be provoked, the better.
Our audiences responded to the performers ‘working; the
audience.

House lights down. (Special or spot – DSC)

Emcee: Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. Well,

you are in for a treat tonight. Over the many years of
TIYL, we have chronicled the lives of countless of
America’s greatest personalities for our 50 million TV
home viewers. But I guarantee that no star shines
brighter in the firmament than our surprise guest this
evening…the World’s Greatest Entertainer… Miss Judy
Garland.
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And you – our audience here in (insert your venue)

will be part of the surprise. Our Judy is presently on a
national concert tour which began just a few days ago
at Carnegie Hall. She is making a brief stopover here
to promote a concert at The Playhouse in the Hotel
DuPont. (insert a local professional theatre) Boy, is
she in for a surprise! She is due here at….

Stage Hand: She’s entering the building!!

Emcee: Get the lights. (to aud.)Ladies and Gentlemen,

we bear your indulgence…not a word.

(Specials lit on stage)

(Judy comes down ramp with Liza. )

Emcee: Good evening, Miss Garland. (she looks

stunned)
Miss Garland, do you know who I am? (still stunned).
Miss Garland?

Judy: (irritated). Well, of course I do, I watch TV, don’t

I? Liza likes your show, don’t you, honey? Nice to
meet you, Mr. What's Your Name, but we’re in a bit of
a rush. Sweetie, give the nice man an autographed
picture of me, will you? (she X’s to center of stage but
NOT on stage)

Liza: Mama! (chagrined)

Judy: Oh, yes, so sorry. Right. I can’t sop and chat.

We’re on deadline. I’ve just got to do this TV spot and
then Liza and I must rush back to NY… Who ARE
these people?? (referring to “TV audience”)

Emcee: (X to Judy) Miss Garland, the trip back might

be postponed for a few hours. Your talented daughter,
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Liza Minnelli, is part of this surprise, for tonight, Judy

Garland, THIS IS YOUR STORY!

Judy very surprised. Looks back and forth at Liza and

Emcee. He takes her arm and escorts to stage.

(TAKE HER TO STAGE AND SIT ON SOFA. FSW)

Music in background Over the Rainbow)

Emcee: Liza will go backstage now and she will be
joining you a bit later. Miss Garland? Miss Garland,
you look a bit nervous. Do you need a glass of water?

Judy: (motions to bar) Do you have anything

stronger?

Emcee: Last week on the evening of April 23, 1961,

3165 privileged people packed the world famous
Carnegie Hall in NYC beyond its capacity; primed to
witness what was to be probably the greatest night in
show business history. The audience filed in with an
almost religious anticipation, described as a musical
parallel to a Billy Graham revival. It was as if she was
a great faith healer endowed with magical powers. By
the time the conductor raised his baton for the
overture, the wildly applauding crowd was in a
transport of ecstasy.
Miss Garland, tonight we will tell your life story
through song…(presents Judy the Sinatra-style hat)…
do you mind?

( Song begins and special on her. USC. She will use

entire center stage)
1) GET HAPPY

FSW
Emcee: Miss Garland…
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Judy: Oh, really, cut the ceremony, honey, call me

Judy!

Emcee: I wrote in my NY Times column that week of

that performance, “...after Judy’s final exit – 2 ½
hours after her first note - the audience refused to
leave. (It was a shame they had to pay for their seats
– for they were never in them!) Now their eyes were
riveted on an empty stage. They understood she had
bestowed upon them every fragment of the Garland
essence. 3000 people had become joined together in
an exalted state. They were not about to let go. Judy,
can you tell us what happened then?

Judy: (matter of fact) Well, this is kind of

embarrassing. No one backstage quite what to do. I
walked on stage. I stared at them. They stared right
back. I said, somewhat meekly, “We’re out of
orchestrations.”

Emcee: And then what?

Judy: A man yelled from the balcony, “Just stand there

!!!”

Emcee: Judy Garland, as she always does throughout

her legendary career, takes a movie audience OR a
concert crowd in her arms and they hug right back!
Born in 1922 in Grand Rapids MN, Frank and Ethel
Gumm moved their family to Lancaster CA where
Frank Gumm had purchased a small theatre which
became a perfect venue for the promotion of “The 3
Singing Gumm Sisters”.
The older sisters were troupers, but soon Babe
commanded all the attention. She acted and looked
like any other preadolescent, but she sounded, well,
like a chanteuse.
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Judy: I was born in a trunk. I was raised in a

vaudeville family. We had lunch for breakfast, dinner
for lunch, and a show for dinner!

Emcee: One writer suggested your first language was

music! As a child, your beloved Father taught you not
only the tricks of a vaudevillian…

Judy: …Yessir. (motions to audience) All you

performers out there or those that want to be
performers, “the act lives or dies in the first few
seconds”. Go for the juggler. Remember that!

Emcee: The potential of her daughter’s God-given

gifts soon became crystal clear to Ethel Gumm. Under
your mother’s guidance …

Judy: …obsession…

Emcee: Beg pardon?

Judy: Nothing…never mind.

Emcee: An opportunity for a week long contract

opened for your act at a top vaudeville house in
Chicago. Comedian George Jessel was the headliner
and emcee. “There’s only one thing wrong with the
Gumm Sisters,” Jessel intoned. “It’s their name”, he
grumbled. “When I introduce them”, he said, “the
audience snickers because the name rhymes with
bum, crumb, dumb…”

Judy: …Or worse yet, Glum….deadly for a singing

group…? (she chuckles)

Emcee: Jessel remarked that the sisters were ..“as

pretty as a garland of flowers” but the younger one,
Babe, is special. She sings like a woman carrying a
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torch for Valentino.” Ethel decided to change it then

and there.

Judy: And I thought “Judy” sounded real preppy.

Emcee: Just two years later when Judy was 14, Ethel
obtained an audition in front of Roger Edens, a music
director under contract with MGM. He asked you
what you wanted to sing…and you replied…

Judy: “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart”. I asked

my dear Roger, who I had just met for the first time
-with all the innocence of an adolescent, “Can you
change keys?”

Emcee : And his reply?

Judy: “Why yes, can you???”

Emcee: Edens later remarked, “After 8 bars of music, I

knew what I had. It was like I was at Sutter’s Mill and
struck gold.” Edens called Louis B. Mayer – of Metro
Goldwyn MAYER and well, the rest is motion picture
history. In 1936, at the venerable age of 14, Judy
Garland signed a 7 year contract with MGM on the
basis of ONE song!

Center Stage – Specials

2) Zing Went the Strings of My Heart – Judy

FSW

Emcee: Well, Judy, how are you feeling?

Judy: Very angered at you and Liza! I’m still of a mind

that this venture is still going to be quite
embarrassing.
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Emcee: Not at all Judy. However, we are going to

jump ahead…a bit out of the march of time, and
introduce you to a voice you may recall.

(From backstage)

Liza: I created my own little World Premier in 1946,

the product of the star of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and
its director, Vincente Minnelli.

Judy: My dear Liza!!

Emcee: Miss Garland, you are of course, familiar with

that voice, that of the youngest actor ever to win a
Broadway Tony at age 19 for Flora The Red Menace,
your daughter, Liza Minnelli. ( Liza enter and hugs and
kisses, etc)

Liza: Of all of Mama’s marriages, hers to Dad was my

favorite!
(sits next to Judy) My parents’ marriage lasted only 4
years, so, honestly, I don’t recall much of that time
as a family. They both had their careers. The divorce
wasn’t simple….but, I guess…is there such a thing?
Okay, brother, there I go again…sorry…that’s not why
we are here tonight.
There are so so very many accomplishments of which
I am proud. Wow. Boy oh boy. Where do I start?

Judy: Try the parties at our home. You were always

the belle of the ball!

Liza: What’s that word, bevy, yes, yes… a bevy of

Hollywood stars at Mama’s monthly parties. Cary
Grant, Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart – and …
Mickey Rooney was my favorite. I think he was
Mama’s favorite as well. Wasn’t he Mama?

Ralph: Can you tell us a bit about Mickey?

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Judy: I had already made 5 movies when I was teamed

with Mickey. But it was not before he pulled me aside
during our first Andy Hardy that I felt I was on my
way to becoming a good actress.

Liza: (excitedly). I know what you’re going to say,

Mama. …He took your hands and said, (takes Ralph’s
hands, he looks embarrassed ), ‘Honey, you’ve got to
believe this, now. You’re a singer first and a damn
okay singer. Talk your dialogue like you’re singin’ it.
Good singing is a form of good acting.

Judy: If you can make yourself believe what you’re

saying (aside to audience) …and, brother…

Judy and Liza (together): You have some pretty silly

things to say in musical. (they laugh)

Judy: Well, if, you do this, everything else falls in

place. Your timing, your gestures, your coordination,
all take care of themselves.’

Liza: Applause was a sound made by angels

Judy: As soothing as a lullaby; as exhilarating as a

bugle.

Both: To sing is to be loved. (both laugh)

Liza: That was Mama’s bedtime lullaby to me – EVERY

NIGHT!

Ralph: Judy, I am sure you will be thrilled to hear Liza

do one of the favorite numbers made famous by both
yourself and ‘The Jazz Singer’ Al Jolson.

(gets up and speaks to aud. Moves DSC

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Specials on Liza

Liza: I will never forget…I was sitting by myself at

one of Mama’s party’s…I was about 8…I was nursing a
coca cola. A critic who wrote for the NY Times sat
down beside me. He said, “Lisa, I want to tell you
something”. I looked up to him and said, “My name is
Liza, with a Z!” He apologized and then went on. He
said, I saw Al Jolson sing live. Back in the day Jolson
was called “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”. I have
seen your Mother sing live. There WAS Al Jolson.
There IS Judy Garland.” My father gave me my
dreams, my Mother gave me my drive. (to Judy).
Mama, this one’s for you. Here's how you put me to
bed each night.

3) Rock a Bye Your Baby – Liza

FSW

(Behind curtain)
Frank: We met on the back lot of MGM. I was singing
with the Tommy Dorsey band. I taught her everything
she knows.

(Judy jumps up from sofa on hearing that familiar

voice.)

Emcee: Wait, Judy there’s more.

Dean: My claim to fame is that I gave Judy her second

kiss…right after Andy Hardy!

Emcee: That’s right, Judy, with whom you appeared in

a TV special last year – “Judy, Frank & Dean: Once In A
Lifetime” - two of your closest celebrity friends, Frank
Sinatra and Dean Martin!

(Enter. All hug and laugh extempore.)

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Emcee: Mr. Sinatra, you were under contract with

MGM as well?

Frank: My first movie was called Reveille with Beverly

and…

Dean: … and Frank stayed with Beverly every night to

make sure she made reveille!!

Frank: As I was saying…and Judy was starring on

another sound stage in..

Judy: Girl Crazy!

Frank: (grabs bottle of Jack Daniels from bar) To our

beloved Judy…

Dean: Let me give it to her…

Frank: Forgedaboutit…

Frank: Dean and I want to present to you this trophy

from Sammy, Peter Lawford and all the members of
the Rat Pack.
Dino's done fell off the wagon last night and hurt his
knee. Not sure if it was his right knee, his kidney or
his hiney.

Dean: (reads inscription - from a liquor bottle!) To

Judy Garland, the World’s Greatest Entertainer and
honorary member of the Rat Pack. (begin song)

Judy: How appropriate…a bottle of Jack Daniels

coming from you!
-DS Specials-
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4) You Do Something To Me – Judy, Frank / Too

Marvelous For Words – Frank / Kick In the Head –
Dean, Judy

(following is the banter during this group of songs)

Judy: ( to Frank) You do something to me

Something that simply mystifies me
Tell me, why should it be?
You have the power to hypnotize me.

Let me live ‘neath your spell

You do that, voodoo that, you do so well.

J & F: Cuz you do something to me

That nobody else can do.

J: You look marvelous.

F: I feel marvelous
J: I’m glad you’re here.
F: Well, I’m delighted to be here.
J: (starts to leave) Well, I have to..
F: You’re not leaving me?
J: I was just going to get my pants.
F: I forbid you.
J: Oh, how marvelous.
F: You’ll be listening?
J: Every word!
F: You’re irresistible
J: I try to be.
F: You won’t be long?
J: No. I’ll be very close.
F: Promise?
J: I swear it.

Frank sings TOO MARVELOUS FOR WORDS

J: (Kisses Frank, hands him a rose). Thanks for being

so good, oh you’re so good, you’re so good.
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F: You enjoyed it/

J: Why yes.
F: You liked it?
J: I loved it.
F: Good.
(sing)
J: You do something to me
Something that simply mystifies me.
Tell me, why can it be?
You have the power to hypnotize me.

(Judy walks to Dean)

J: Let me live under your spell.
Do do that, voodoo that, you do so well.
D & J: But you do something to me
That nobody else can do.

J: You look marvelous.

F: I think he looks terrible.
D: I feel marvelous.
J: I’m glad you’re here.
D: I’m glad I’m here too, Judy.
(Judy starts to leave)
D: Where ya goin’?
J: Well, I thought I’d just go and get my fan.
D: No, no, you come here.
J: Oh, how marvelous.
D: There’s something I want you to hear – and, uh…
you’ll be listening?
J: Every word.
D: Promise?
J: Mmmmm
D: Promise?
J: I swear.

(Dean sings Kick in the Head)

J: (kisses Dean) That’s for being so good, oh you’re so

good, you’re so good.
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D: I was good, I was good. Oh, I was good, yea. You

enjoyed it?
J: Yes.
D: Every bit/
J: I loved it.
D: How come I got no flower? (takes Dean’s hand and
walks to Frank, who is still holding the rose) Come
with me.
(Judy takes flower from Frank)
J: Thank you Frank.
D: Frank you, thank.
(Judy hands flower to Dean. Frank is stunned.)

(all sing)
J: Let me
D: Let me.
F: Let me
ALL: Live under your spell
Keep doin’ that, voodoo that, you do so well.
Cause you do something to me
That nobody else can do
That nobody else can do.
(Judy exits)

(F and D kiss Judy on opposite cheeks. Frank pulls

rose from breast pocket. The men clink the roses as a
toast and mock drink.)

D: (sniffing rose). Did you see the way she looked at

me when she gave me that flower?
F: Gave you the flower? She gave me the…she opened
with me!
D: But she took the flower and gave it to me. Ah, Judy,
Judy..
F: It’s obvious that you don’t comprehend the
beautiful relationship that can be established
between a man and a woman pal.
D: (sniffing flower) Forsooth. Oh, Judy, Judy, Judy!
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F: You go sniffin’ forsooth, and I’m gonna woo the

lady with a song (waves ta ta and exits)

-FSW-

Emcee: You’re Judy Garland. Star. To Culver City,

home of MGM, came the most glamorous people on
the globe; stars whose faces were more familiar to
the multitudes than presidents and popes, princes
and potentates. It was one of the most extraordinary
cities in the world.

Judy: It feels now I was born at the age of 12 on an

MGM lot!

Emcee: The motion picture musical, “Babes in Arms”

with Mickey was released in 1939 - the same year as
the premiere of Oz. It had taken only 4 years to turn
Frances Baby Gumm into a major star!
‘Oz’ was up for Best Picture that year but lost out to a
real sleeper ladies and gentlemen…no compelling
characters…no big stars….no historical panorama.…
Can someone in the audience tell me who won the
Oscar that year?

Judy: That was a tough year to compete: John Wayne’s

Stagecoach, Jimmy Stewart’s Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington and Laurence Olivier’s Wuthering
Heights, wow.

Emcee: After Babes in Arms, though, Garland and

Rooney were a perfect match; sympathetic hearts and
best of friends. Judy sings, Mickey struts. Few
musicals had as many memorable hits as this Rodgers
and Hart show. We have put together a medley of
these tunes for you and our guests. Judy, can you tell
us the running theatrical phrase that was coined in
that picture?
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Judy: That battle weary theme was to be repeated in

so MANY movies in the ‘30’s. “Kids, let’s put on a
show!”

-FSW-

5) Babes in Arms- Judy; Where or When - Dean; Lady

is a Tramp (Judy is a Champ) – Frank; Johnny One
Note - Liza & Judy

(Liza sits with Judy)

Emcee: Hollywood, this “City of Oz” manufactured

dreams the way Detroit crafted cars and DuPont
synthesized nylon. And yet, Judy, to you, through
your travails, Hollywood may have become an evil
parody of the land of Oz.
MGM had absolute control over employees. The
‘system’ was something quite different from the
‘glamour’. The system…

Judy: Call it by its right name….indentured servitude.

I was personal property with a stamp on my head.

Emcee: Judy, you have talent as substantial as Mt.

Rushmore but an ego as fragile as butterfly wings.

Liza: First call was 5AM and Mama was lucky to get
home 14 hours later. I never saw her.

Judy: Most of the time we were shooting one movie in

the morning and rehearsing for the next one in the
afternoon! It was breathtaking in its stress…

Ralph: …tyrannical directors…

Judy: …Busby Berkeley, that bastard! (alt: B-word!)

Liza: …the constant stress of looking like a ‘pin up’.

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Judy: (wistfully) I was always too fat. The stage crew

guys would always whistle and hoot at Lana Turner
and Rita Hayworth. All I got was a “Hi, Judy”. How
could I compete with their beauty?

Liza: Mama was given her first amphetamine to ‘pep’

her up - by my grandmother… when she was 9! Do
you believe it??

Judy: Mother called them “my vitamins. If someone

criticized her, she would quickly put them in their
place….. “I’ve got to keep my girl going”.

Emcee: And the irony, Judy, is that throughout your

life you did not have to be prodded to perform
anymore than you had to be prodded to eat.
In the early 1940’s you, along with Bette Davis, were
two of the few stars the studio could take to the bank
in the unsettling financial times after the Depression.
Your musicals made Leo the Lion purr. In 1943 you
starred in a musical set around the World’s Fair in St.
Louis, directed by soon-to-be Liza’s dad. In that movie
you canonized two songs.

Judy starts off solo – SR – special

Then followed by Liza for Trolley– both DSC

6) Boy Next Door – Judy / The Trolley Song – Liza &

Judy

FSW

After song, Liza sits with Judy

Emcee: There was a studio doctor who was the

resident drug dispenser. Benzedrine, the “new
miracle” appetite suppressant – would not let Judy
sleep…and Judy had natural insomnia. With some of
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their stars complaining they could not get to sleep,

MGM had an answer… sleeping pills!

Judy: I had no youth. It was still stolen from me by

MGM. That happens a lot with child stars.

Liza: (getting emotional. To aud. XSR) Mother’s

should be guardians, right? They should be
defenders…isn’t that right? (walks back and forth SL
to SR) And here it is, Grandmother gave Mama an
introduction to life alright…by way of downing
uppers! (Point to aud.) If you had a child as gifted as
Mama, wouldn’t you be delirious over her gifts?
Grandmother was an AGENT…not a mother. (pauses)
Applause from Mama’s fans took the place of the love
she did not receive from those that should have given
it.

(Judy begins on couch – Special. At key change she

moves DSC)

7) SMILE

FSW

8) Birth of The Blues - Ensemble

End of ACT I

ACT II

9)Friendship – Judy & Frank/ Anything You Can Do –

Judy & Liza / You’re The Top – Judy & Dean /
Together – Ensemble

Judy appears on stage on sofa. Emcee is standing.

Lights up.
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Emcee: The woman of hundreds of heartbreaks,

thousands of headlines and a half dozen comebacks..

Judy: A half dozen? I’ve had 185 comebacks up to

now. Some people think come-back when I return from the
ladies room! I don’t think I ever went anywhere…did I?

Emcee: In 1950 you were offered the role of Annie

Oakley in the movie ‘Annie Get Your Gun’, a perfect
role for the irrepressible Judy. But your contract was
abruptly terminated. You were considered ‘arbitrary”,
“capricious” and “difficult to deal with”.

Judy: (Irritated but appealing to audience). Of course!

What’s the purpose of being Judy Garland?
(Change demeanor)
I really wanted that role too. I related to the character
of Annie Oakley. (to aud.) Girls, doncha just love out
shooting, out singing and in general getting the best
of men? I loved Irving’s songs: ‘Anything You Can Do’,
‘No Business Like Show Business’…It was a difficult
time.

Ralph: You were the victim of overwork and studio

politics. But you were the breadwinner. People relied
on you. You had been pressured to perform at the
highest level possible since the age of 3!

Judy: My life was pretty chaotic. But you shouldn't be

told you're completely irresponsible and be left alone
with too much medication. It's too easy to forget. You
take a couple of sleeping pills and you wake up in
twenty minutes and forget you've taken them. So you
take a couple more, and the next thing you know
you've taken too many.

Ralph: Your contract was terminated at MGM. But

where could Judy Garland go from here? Our Judy was
a superstar who worked hard at the considerable feat
of converting herself into an underdog.
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Second husband Sid Luft …

Judy: 3rd.

Emcee: Excuse me?

Judy: 3rd husband. (shrugs in a self-deprecating way

to aud).

Emcee: Yes, certainly. 3rd husband Sid Luft became

your manager and your next phase… “The
International Concert Years” created a new
generation of Judy worshipers around the world.

Judy: You might say that my concert career came just

in time.

Frank: (from near the offstage bar) What did you say,
Judy?

Judy: I said… (tune begins)

Frank: I heard, honey, I heard….

Frank comes from SL

DS special

10) Just In Time – Frank

SR – Special
Exit and special off

SL special on Judy - Walks into light

Judy: You can’t the audience home with you after the
curtain rings down. Professional happiness doesn’t
last through the night. It doesn’t protect you from the
terror of a lonely hotel room. And, in a way, it
destroys your soul to feed off applause. I know, I’ve
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tried to draw strength and security from it. But in the

middle of the night, when I’m sleeping alone,
applause becomes an empty echo, and you think,
God, how am I going to make it till morning? I always
looked to my men for strength. (off-handedly as music
begins)…It’s been said it is difficult dealing with Judy
Garland. Do you realize how difficult it is BEING Judy
Garland!

11) The Man That Got Away

Frank walks into special on SL

Frank: Judy dispenses spiritual health to the audience

and sustenance for the soul. There is an ease and a
grace to her every movement, an originality and
intensity in her gestures that go far beyond the
merely skillful authority of a singer and actress.

Dean: That tremulous mouth, that aura of innocence,

that voice always on the verge of tears, those large
brimming eyes that evoke any emotion at will, a
meaning she gives to her songs that strikes straight
to our heart. Judy makes us smile. And as you see,
the superstar Judy has passed her talents to the
amazing Liza.

Full house lights for Wilkommen with FSW (she will

play audience)– when Liza hits stage, house lights go
out and DSC special

12) Cabaret Med – Wilkommen, Married,

Cabaret – Liza

Special on bar

13)The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else –

Frank / Dean (bar)
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14) Volare - Dean

Specials on 3 separate stage areas – SL, USC and SL

15) It Was A Very Good Year – Judy, Liza,

Dean & Frank

DSL Special on Ralph and USR special on trunk

(Judy and Liza on stage putting clown makeup and

bum outfits on each other.)

Emcee: Being given ‘vitamins’ by her mother…a

doctor on call on the lot to dispense drugs…. Did she
ever have a chance? Thinking about Judy, one
conjures an indomitable and indestructible blast of
energy. One considers the supernatural life-force that
could burst forth and electrify all about her, that
female Svengali with the mischievous wit and antic
humor that could so entrance and delight and
mysteriously turn an audience of thousands into
manic worshipers.
It has been said that Judy possessed that ‘thought’
behind the eyes, an utter tenderness that could
envelop you. She had an energy that was dispersed in
the air around her and the audience would lovingly
breath it all in.

FSW

16) A Couple of Swells

DSL special on Emcee

(Judy sits on trunk in blackout)

Emcee: (VO) When Dorothy Gale entered Oz, Judy
Garland entered immortality. The Wizard of Oz speaks
to your feelings, not your intellect. It comforts and
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inspires. Children identify with Dorothy with their

fears; adults identify with their dreams.
A poor little girl is sent down a perilous path. Along
the way she must slay wicked witches and stand up to
mighty wizards. We are made to see all the fantastic
adventures thru Dorothy’s wide and trusting eyes.
She makes the unbelievable believable.., the unreal
real.
Dorothy is on journey of self discovery – a spiritual
passage from adolescence to adulthood. Even with
help from her kind Aunt and Glinda, she must find her
own way. Her destiny is HERS to determine; no one
else can do it for her. She teaches all of us that we
can confront our threats – real or imagined- and
determine our own future.
At the end, though, the traveled little girl
understands, ”If I ever go looking for my heart’s
desire again, I won’t look any further than my own
backyard.”

DSC Special on Judy on trunk

(still in ‘Couple of Swells’ bum outfit)

Judy: (faltering) Excuse me. I’m just so scared

sometimes. I don’t know where this voice comes from.
I think sometimes the audience will find me out and
discover I’m not that good.

14)OVER THE RAINBOW

After applause - FSW

Greer Firestone
2007 – All Rights Reserved