Countdown to Judy

It seems increasingly hard to get a rise out of jaded New Yorkers. But when Rufus Wainwright announced that on June 14 and 15 he would re-create Judy Garland’s epochal 1961 Carnegie Hall concert—helmed by Sam Mendes, with a 40-piece orchestra and new outfits by Viktor & Rolf—on the same stage, phones all over town began a-ringin’. And so TONY decided to go all Cape Canaveral and do a Countdown to Judy: Every week until the June shows, we’ll check in with the event’s principals, starting with Wainwright himself, to see how they’re gearing up for J-day, then post their thoughts online.

“This performance was a great Olympian event,” Wainwright explains. “Any singer should attempt it if they want to see how good they are.” While he will follow the original set list, he also warns that we shouldn’t expect absolute Judy realness. “I don’t want to be an impersonator,” he says. “I do have to be aware that I am going up against one of the most physical, engaging performers in history, so I have to do something. We’ll see what that is.”

Photo: Andy Earl

For Wainwright, the time is right to tackle Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall: “They reissued the album a few years ago for the 40th anniversary, and that’s when I really came into contact with it. I find the political and socioeconomic environment we live in very oppressive and very worrying, but every time I put on that live album, I was immediately put in a better mood. I was given a sense of hope and a sense of escape, only because so much of modern-day culture and radio—and what’s prized by our society—is so empty. And then of course I would sing along.

“Also, as that was happening, several close friends—notably Justin Bond, who’s in Kiki & Herb, and Antony—did shows at Carnegie Hall, and I was starting to feel a little threatened,” he says with a laugh. “Like, I’d better get my ass over there and do something.”

But surely, Wainwright can’t have discovered Judy Garland with that 2001 reissue. “When I was very young I was Judy,” he exclaims. “On good days I was Dorothy, on bad days I was the Wicked Witch. The interesting thing about it, too, is that I’ve always related to it mainly because I don’t relate much to Frank Sinatra. I appreciate Frank, but there are so many Frank Sinatra imitators, whether it’s Harry Connick Jr. or Michael Bublé—the kind of guys who [Snaps his fingers in quick succession] basically want to get laid. And there’s nobody being the flip side of that, which is the hungry, lonely, desperate, crazy-person singer [Laughs]. So I wanted to pick up that mantle and try to be a little less cool.”—Elisabeth Vincentelli

· Week 1: Rufus Wainwright
· Week 2: Stephen Oremus
· Week 3: Jared Geller
· Week 4: Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoere
· Week 5: Rufus Wainwright
· Week 6: Phil Ramone
· Week 7: Kate McGarrigle