Sheeeeee’s baaaaaaaccccckk!

Way back in 2008, we presented an abbreviated version of the show (cut down to about an hour), and in 2009, we had our first big “workshop” run at the Mesa Arts Center. Now, coming in April, the original musical comes to life for its “developmental” production. That’s right! In just a little over a month, From Gumm to Garland, Judy: The Musical will make its third, official public appearance at the Tempe Center for the Arts for a limited seven performances.

This time around, things are just a little bigger and more exciting. The script has been reworked, new songs have been added, (some will likely get cut), we have a four-piece rhythm section instead of simply piano accompaniment, a bigger theatre, a bigger creative team, and of course, we have a little bit of star power thanks to Paige O’Hara, who will be summoning the spirit of Ms. Garland.

It’s been remarkable to see a show built from scratch that continues to climb the “theatre ladder” step-by-step. It will be even more fascinating to see what kind of response the show gets in April and to see where the show will go next, if anywhere.

If you haven’t yet got tickets and are in the Phoenix area, you can buy tickets online at http://tca.ticketforce.com. Come support an original production (with over two dozen original songs arranged — not composed — by moi!) or just come support creativity, in general. This stuff is harder than it looks!

Valerie Saunders as Judy Garland

Some of you may know that I’ve been collaborating with local playwright and Judy fanatic, Richard Sullivan, for nearly three years now on his musical tribute to Judy Garland. Last November, we staged a short, hour-long reading featuring a few key songs to help raise money for this year’s performance. On Sunday, the show closed its two-week, 13-performance run at the Farnsworth Studio Theatre at the Mesa Arts Center. We considered this run to be a “workshop” of the script and songs and received all kinds of great promotion and feedback.

"Checking Out" - Valerie Saunders (Judy Garland), Chelsea Groen (Lorna Luft), and Drew Ignatowski (Joey Luft)

My role in the show has been that of music arranger and supervisor. While Richard wrote the book, the lyrics, and came up with the melodies, it was my job to dictate those melodies, turn them into notes on the page, and develop the piano accompaniment that would ultimately support those melodies. In many instances, the musical structure would suggest that certain lyrics needed to be cut or even that some should be added, or perhaps that a particular melodic line or phrase wanted to take on a different shape. In this respect, Richard and I both collaborated to make the best melodic structure we could and then, with his stylistic considerations in mind, I would arrange piano accompaniment.

The chorus boys pretend to stall for Judy in "Two-a-Day at the Palace"

This project has been a tremendous challenge for my arranging skills but also tremendous fun. There are approximately 24 original songs in the show, at least three of which have been completely rewritten for this month’s performance (and still more changes and rewrites on the horizon). If you know my concert music, you probably realize that a lot of my music is fairly complex with lots of going on. For this musical, I was able to write “in the style of” traditional MGM movie musicals for many of the tunes, but still incorporate a more contemporary style into the reflective, emotional character-driven numbers. I think this diversity is particularly important when presenting an original musical set in a particular musical era.

The Gumm sisters sing "Christmas in our Home Town"

All in all, it’s been a fascinating creative and legal process and a very rewarding collaboration. Richard will probably kill me for posting this, but I think it’s really interesting to hear the differences between the original demos that he sang for me three years ago and the recent workshop versions of the song. So here, exclusively, you can hear both the demo and live recording side by side to the ensemble number, Movieland. And yes, this particular song may sound vaguely familiar.

• Movieland, original demo, sung by the writer Richard Sullivan
• Movieland, live performance, November 14, 2009

To see more of my production photos from the show, please check out the following link:
http://www.markowskicreative.com/photos/2009/judythemusical/