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| Photo: Michael Brunk |
Judy Garland and Christmas go Hand in Hand, but Judy's SCARY Little Christmas got my interest. Just from the title alone you know you are in for some CAMPY Fun.
Our friends at ARTSwest just opened Judy’s Scary Little Christmas (directed by OUTview Pal, Troy Wageman, who most recently directed the Robbie Turner Revue), an original musical written by James Webber and David Church, with music and lyrics by Joe Patrick Ward. It is a spoof on television variety shows of the 1950s, satirizing celebrities’ public images and private lives. The fictional story employs a metaphysical plot twist (as in the television series, The Twilight Zone) and spiritual redemption through a ghost (as in Charles Dickens’ novel, A Christmas Carol.) The show contains campy humor based on the sensationalized personal lives of the celebrities, with satirical references to pop culture and politics of the 1950s.
The first stage reading was directed by Leonard Foglia in January 2000 at the John Houseman Theatre Center in New York City, with Isabel Keating as “Judy Garland,” and continued when the play was staged that December, in fact, I saw Keating playing Judy again in the 'Boy from OZ' in 2004 and sounds like she could have been discovered from the show to play Judy again in 'OZ'.
