Peter Mac: Judy Garland Live! In Concert

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Peter Mac

Judy Garland Live! In Concert

Lee Strasberg Theatre, West Hollywood, CA,  June 10, 2017

Reviewed by Elliot Zwiebach for Cabaret Scenes

Peter Mac

There was only one Judy Garland, but there is still Peter Mac to keep her songs, her story and her memory alive—and he excels on all counts.

After living and performing in Boston for the past three years, tribute artist Mac brought Garland back to Hollywood—and back to life—on the exact date of the anniversary of her 95th birthday, recreating the legend in all her glory, and he’s as good as ever, which is pretty damned good.

Mac approaches Garland with reverence for her talent and a tacit acknowledgement that, though her life was not all rainbows, her legacy and the joy she shared with audiences deserve to be preserved and honored.

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And honor her he did with a two-hour concert in which he sang many of her greatest hits and told stories, as Garland, about her show-biz chums—one of whom actually joined him on stage.

That was Margaret O’Brien, Garland’s now-80-year-old co-star in Meet Me in St. Louis.  In a thoroughly surreal moment, the real O’Brien and the faux Garland shared memories of their days “together” at MGM.

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The segment ended with the pair reprising their duet of “Under the Bamboo Tree” (John Rosamond Johnson/Bob Cole) that they sang in the movie, after which O’Brien said she wanted to sing her favorite song from the film, “I Was Drunk Last Night, Dear Mother”—a touching and astonishing moment of art and life in complete synchronicity.

Mac as Garland IS Garland circa 1963, with every tic in place—slurred word endings, microphone cord over the shoulder, crossed-legged bows, hand on hip for high notes—and a sound unerringly close to the original. On song after song Mac recreated the Garland magic, from a sultry “The Man That Got Away” (Ira Gershwin/Harold Arlen) to an upbeat “Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”(James F. Hanley), to a full-out “Get Happy” (Arlen/Ted Koehler) complete with tuxedo jacket—just one of several costumes based on originals worn by Garland.

Mixed in among the chestnuts were what Mac called “songs that got away”—songs written after Garland’s death in 1969—including a very apt “As If We Never Said Goodbye” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Don Black/Christopher Hampton, from Sunset Boulevard) marking Mac’s return to Southern California; up-tempo takes on “Moondance” (Van Morrison); and a welcome “No Time at All” (Stephen Schwartz, from Pippin) that included an audience sing-a-long.

The sound—pre-recorded orchestral music based on Garland’s arrangements—was a bit unbalanced at some points in the evening, but that did not detract from Mac’s performance. The show was directed by John Mac-Schaefer, who prompted “Garland” from offstage to tell one story or another, and produced by Sissy Debut. Proceeds from the show went to the Southern California Motion Picture Council, which O’Brien chairs.

Elliot Zwiebach

Elliot Zwiebach loves the music of The Great American Songbook and classic Broadway, with a special affinity for Rodgers and Hammerstein. He's been a professional writer for 45 years and a cabaret reviewer for five. Based in Los Angeles, Zwiebach has been exposed to some of the most talented performers in cabaret—the famous and the not-so-famous—and enjoys it all. Reviewing cabaret has even pushed him into doing some singing of his own — a very fun and liberating experience that gives him a connection with the performers he reviews.