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Preview by Jack Foley
LORNA Luft, daughter of late screen and singing legend, Judy
Garland, is to bring her autobiographical one-woman show to The
Savoy Theatre on July 6.
Songs My Mother Taught Me will replace the planned programme
for the Savoy Opera season and will relate Luft’s experiences
while growing up as the daughter of one of the world’s most
famous entertainers.
The production is also designed to showcase and celebrate her
mother’s musical legacy, and includes such Garland classics
as Come Rain or Shine, For Me and My Gal, I Can’t Give
You Anything But Love, You Made Me Love You and The Trolley
Song.
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Luft, who is also the half-sister of Liza Minnelli, will be supported
by a ten-piece orchestra, using Garland’s original arrangements,
which will be led by her husband, Colin Freeman, as musical director.
There will also be a video backdrop of rare Garland footage,
as well as family photo album memorabilia.
Luft is no stranger to the entertainment scene, having shared
the stage with her mother on numerous occasions, while growing
up, most notably during a month-long engagement at Broadway’s
Palace Theatre.
Her other US stage credits include Snoopy, Extremities, Grease,
Carnival, Guys and Dolls and Little Shop of Horrors,
while her screen credits include the long-lamented Grease 2.
Her autobiography, Me and My Shadows: Living with the Legacy
of Judy Garland, was published in 1988, and was subsequently turned
into a multi award-winning US TV mini-series.
In London, Songs My Mother Taught Me, which has been written
by Mitzie and Ken Welch, will be produced by Lee Menzies.
The Savoy’s current Opera launch productions of The Barber
of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro are due to finish
on June 19, with the rest of the planned programme suspended.
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