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I attended the first screening of the documentary The Outrageous Sophie Tucker high noon at the venerable art house, Cinema Village, on the big screen. Ok, it was Cinema Village, as I said, so it was a medium-sized screen.
Susan and Lloyd Ecker are tirelessly doing Q&As after every screening to help promote the film. It was wonderful to finally meet them in person afterwards in the lobby, as you can see by the photo. Directed by William Gazecki, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker's executive producers are Phil Ramone and Gene Schwam.
During the audience Q&A, I asked the Eckers if they had any reservations or regrets after they saw the final edit of this film. They allowed as to how their only regret is, to get their documentary into a basically 90-minute format, so much footage was edited out. No worries as they promise deleted footage will be on the upcoming dvd.
The filmmakers also said that some of the talking heads during the closing titles sequence (Kaye Ballard, et al.) had no more footage or they'd have loved to include that in the film itself.
Brilliant summer afternoon. The Eckers are, in person, warm, kind and a privilege to have met. The film has already garnered many award nominations (including a Grammy) and is certainly worthy of New York Film Critics and Oscar consideration. And there's always a potential HBO deal. Wishing Susan and Lloyd lots of well-deserved luck. This film has a lot of commercial potential.
We're one week away from Manhattan's Gay Pride March and celebrations (notably the Pier Dance) that culminate in fireworks over the Hudson.
Judy by Avedon
But today, June 22, is the day Judy Garland came to the end of her rainbow. It's said her passing helped spark the Stonewall Riots. There are, respectfully, many Gay Pride celebrations internationally but it all originated in Manhattan, NYC, at the Stonewall bar that still stands at its original location on Christopher Street in the West Village.
Hot time, summer in the city, back of their necks getting dirty and gritty... especially if they had wigs on! The Stonewall patrons lost their icon, Judy G, and were NOT having it that night in 1969!
Today, however, a very fair one in NYC, Folsom Street East, an outdoor LGBT fetish festival, was celebrated. The tres-gay event for "sexy kinksters" took place on west 27th Street between 10th & 11th Ave. after a hiatus last year.
The time is right to come out, come out wherever you are in NYC! Pride is in the air!
LGBT Pride Month begins June 1st, which is Marilyn Monroe's birthday. And LGBT Pride in June celebrates the political liberation that was initiated during the Stonewall riots on June 28, 1968 -- the day after Judy Garland's funeral. Coincidence? I think not. Both icons cherished and were supportive of their legion of gay fans.
LGBT Pride Day, in city after city around the world, will embrace dance-music divas. They're the idols of the post-Stonewall age. These divas will be on parade floats! In clubs! In cabarets! And even right on the streets during Pride Days internationally. Oklahoma City Pride this year will feature the double-powerhouse appearance of Taylor Dayne and Martha Wash, for example. Lucky city! As is Milwaukee, where that burg's PrideFest has the divine Debby Holiday onstage ahead of comedy divas Sandra Bernhard and Lisa Lampanelli.
Here in New York City, Queens Pride kicked off June 1 with the fabulous Inaya Day belting out her Billboard club hits, "Movin' Up" and "Make Some Noise" 1 a.m. at Icon in Astoria. The Pier Dance in Manhattan will be on Sunday, June 29. This year, the Pier Dance diva will be Demi Lovato who is not enough of a draw, personally, to bring me to that event. Last year, I was there with bells on (only figuratively) to see Cher and Deborah Cox. What an amazing show that was! http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2013/07/on-pier-with-cher-and-hot-cox.html
So, what diva or divas are appearing at your city's event? Dj Buddy Beaverhausen would love to hear from you, all over the world. Don't be shy. Enquiring minds need to know. Wishing a happy Pride Day to all, wherever you might be!
stevers62 on YouTube is always outstanding and especially over the holidays. On our Christmas Countdown today, a link to some Garland for your Yuletide celebration on this Vintage Parlour Echo Mix:
I love this camp mix, by Stervers62 on YouTube, of Judy Garland singing "Purple People Eater" with an intro/outro of The Twilight Zone theme song. Get your Halloween on, people, with this one.
Like the Wicked Witch of the West, who knew how to screw up a good time, Liza Minnelli weighs in on the Broadway hit, "End of the Rainbow" which is, of course, about her mum, Judy Garland.
Writes Billboard on the matter: "Liza is back! The long-unavailable recording of Liza Minnelli's legendary Winter Garden concert in 1974 is available for the first time. The singer/actress, who charmingly still uses words like swell and grand, spoke to Billboard about 'Live at the Winter Garden' and her lasting career, being a gay icon along along with Lady Gaga, plus she takes issue with 'End of the Rainbow,' a new Broadway play about her mother, Judy Garland, that Backstage describes as a 'tabloid view of Garland's final descent into despair and self-destruction.'
"It amazes me that they can do anything they want and say anything they want that's not true," she told us about the show, which she has not seen. [Emphasis my own.] "It upsets all of us, but not to the point where you get really upset. It's more like, 'Oh please!'"
As Mother's Day is coming up, I'll give her a pass for defending the memory of her mom. I'd do the same. But, really, do you think keeper-of-the-flame, Liza, would say:"Yes! They nailed it! Mom was a mess!" Lorna might.
Meanwhile, Ellen touchingly talked about Obama on the subject of marriage equality. (By the way, I love her smartly asexual outfits.) See what I mean about her chatter:
RuPaul as both Pres. & 1st Lady Obama, celebrating equality under the law
What can I say about a Broadway show that has its main character, Judy Garland, bounce back from the dead just before curtain to belt out "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," except that I loved it!
You don't have to be gay to like End of the Rainbow but, as they say, it helps. Ben Brantley gave it a rave in The New York Times.
"As befits a play about Judy Garland, a woman known for liberally mixing her pills, Peter Quilter’s 'End of the Rainbow' is a jolting upper and downer at the same time. After watching Tracie Bennett’s electrifying interpretation of Garland in the intense production that opened on Monday night at the Belasco Theater, you feel exhilarated and exhausted, equally ready to dance down the street and crawl under a rock," wrote the critic.
Rainbow is most definitely a theatrical star vehicle with the star giving an absolute tour de force performance. Tracie Bennett flies around the stage more than Spiderman, and she's not on wires! (Though "wired" is a good way to describe her performance.) When it comes to booze-and-pills-soaked egomania mixed with an unending neediness, Judy Garland puts Neely O'Hara (her counterpart from the Jacqueline Susann roman a clef, Valley of the Dolls) to shame, if we are to believe playwright Quilter's dramatization, which is certainly part fiction, part legend, part truth.
The real Judy with 5th hubby, Mickey Deans
It would be no wonder Garland went through five husbands, four of whom left her (she died on the fifth), as spending just a little over two hours with her impersonator left me with a slight revulsion. A manic-depressive mess in a dress, Bennett's Garland is a bunch of raw nerves, and irritating, but not without a coquettish charm. This show may be exhausting to watch but it must be even more exhausting to perform. I couldn't imagine giving this energy to a matinee and evening performance in the same day. And the currently Tony-nominated Bennett has been doing this show since she originated it in London's West End!
On behalf of all the drag queens all over the world, I'm afraid Tracie Bennett is the greatest drag queen of them all when it comes to Judy, Judy, Judy. She's got the voice right, the look honed to perfection and her singing is flawlessly on target. Of course, drag is about illusion, and illusion is what theater is about. I don't know if the real Judy Garland slung bon mots around so freely, but I like to imagine she must have.
Besides Ms Bennett's brilliant performance, she receives strong support from Tom Pelphrey as husband-to-be Mickey Deans, Michael Cumpsty as the fictitious pianist, and Jay Russell in an array of bit parts.
The set that transforms itself from Garland's London hotel suite to the Talk of the Town theater (where a flat-broke Judy is attempting to stage another comeback) and back again is very cleverly constructed, with the show's great orchestra seen behind a scrim in the Talk of the Town sequences. Ms Bennett covers all of Garland's biggest hits ("The Man That Got Away," "Come Rain or Come Shine") to ironic effect within the context of the script.
Judy was fired from the making of the film, Valley of the Dolls, for being unreliable on the set. She left with her Helen Lawson costume (replica worn in the play). Judy's film role then went to Susan Hayward. As Helen Lawson roars in the movie: "Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope!"
Obviously, she was wrong.
At the Belasco Theater, 111 West 44th Street, Manhattan, (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com.
Below, an alcohol-and-pills-fueled Judy talks into a tape recorder in an attempt to put together some raw data about her life for a planned autobiographical book. (She died before these tapes could produce anything coherent for publication.) As a narrative, this is almost unintelligible. But, emotionally, it is real; unprocessed and unrefined. Judy's rage and sarcasm make me think that End of the Rainbow is far from exaggerated or fabricated. This YouTube entry is from the hard-to find bootleg cd, Judy Garland Speaks.
Judy Garland always comes through, always astounds us. No matter what condition she's in. From her CBS Christmas special, here she is with her three adoring kids, Liza, Lorna and Joey. They seem to have lived in Rob Petrie's house from The Dick van Dyke Show.
Guess what? Carolers come to the Garland residence and one of them happens to be Mel Torme!
Unclear what medication with what alcohol Judy was on that day, but she seems to have a difficult time with her lyrics. Mel even gently comments on her first big gaff. "Rainbows," not "reindeer," really know how to fly? I thought Judy was already over that damned rainbow!
You'd think, in her condition, she'd be very relaxed, but she's still a jangled bundle of nerves despite her meds, and a bit of a mess in this. Still, she's an all-time wonderful talent (though, I'm sure, CBS brass were worried during this taping), so here's Judy at Christmas to entertain us all, all these years later.
Indian summer feels as if it's settled in in New York, so it may not feel very Halloweeny this Columbus Day weekend. I mean, that vibe's not in the air at the moment as the crisp air gave way to a return to summer feelings and thinner blood. Did I say blood? Because our Halloween Countdown still lurches on nonetheless. And tonight, a rarity! Judy Garland singing Sheb Wooly's novelty classic, "Purple People Eater." The song was recorded live at Coconut Grove and is a prime example of Judy in concert mode. It's an unlikely choice for Miss Garland but listen to how she puts it across with such vigor and glee, and I love the sci-fi parody patter that introduces the number. Stevers62, on Youtube, also nicely bookended the song with the Twilight Zone theme. A Halloween time capsule.
Above, the heavenly centerpiece of the graphics on my new dj-promo-only Christmas cd, entitled "Hark!" As one who strives not to take the Christ out of Christmas, please note that my angel is wearing a crucifix (on what appears to be rosary beads, but don't email the Pope to report someone wearing a holy item as fashion accessory; remember the heat Madonna took over it).
I tried especially hard this year to present a mix of songs that would indeed provide much needed holiday cheer, and all set to a dance beat. To that end, I've included Britney Spears' now-ironic "Santa, Can You Hear Me", a loungey dance-mix of Kay Starr's classic "Waiting for the Man with the Bag" (I do hope she's referring to Santa!), plus the spanking new Marius de Vries remix of the Pet Shop Boys' grammatically correct "It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas."
There's a Hanukah rap number as well, and two of the 17 tracks are devoted to your New Year's Eve party (the original ballad version of ABBA's "Happy New Year" and Pepper Mashay's splendid disco version of "Here's to Life," the final toast on this promo mix). I've also included one of my very own creations: my Cha Cha Heels mix of "Not on Christmas," a disco extravaganza looping dialogue from the famous Christmas sequence from John Waters' film, "Female Trouble," starring Divine. I find it heartwarming.
I've been dedicating my time lately to transforming dialogue and songs from classic movies into dance tunes. It's a bit time-consuming and tedious to get the desired effect but very gratifying when I finally get it right. My wish for the new year is to create enough of these mixes for an entire promo cd. Maybe I should call it something like "Buddy Beaverhausen Goes to Chelsea Movie Classics," in honor of the long-running Thursday Night series at Clearview's Chelsea Cinema. ("Where dreams come true," as host Hedda Lettuce is wont to frequently remind us.) However, that title may prove too limiting if I also decide to go with non-movie dialogue and Broadway show tunes as well.
So far, I've mixed "I'll Plant My Own Tree," Judy Garland's original but deleted recording (she was booted off the set) from "Valley of the Dolls", and "The Bodega Bay School." ("Mast Attack" remix (not a typo; listen to Brit character actress Ethel Griffies recite her line.)) The latter is a mix based on dialogue from the diner sequence from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." Anyhow, these should surface sometime soon in my promo club mixes, so beware.
Just in time for the holidays, I found a new supplier of rare and fabulous remixes, in the UK. Pointer Sisters "Happiness," The Byrds "Mr Tambourine Man," The Beatles "We Can Work It Out," Dolly "Jolene," Frankie Valli "Grease" and even "Climb Every Mountain" by Peggy Wood, Junior Vasquez mix. No song of any era is off limits, and I hope to be including at least some of these remixes in my sets and on my promos in 2010.
And this from Edge New York, in Kevin Scott Hall's "Kevin on Kabaret" column on December 2:
"Rare delights
Meanwhile, for something completely different, if you can get your hands on DJ Buddy Beaverhausen’s promo Hark!, snap it up!
He always finds rare delights such as "Christmas Tree" by Lady Gaga, a new Pet Shop Boys holiday treat, or a Madonna/Gwen Stafani mash-up. You’ll definitely be dancing to something called "Please, Please Santa" by Bo & Monica. And we all need a little "Hanukah Homeboy" by Doc Mo She, right?
Best of all is an original mix called "Not on Christmas", dialogue culled from John Waters’ "Female Trouble" set to a club groove. Hilarious! . . ."
