Judy by the Numbers: "Together Wherever We Go"
Wednesday, October 5, 2016 at 10:20AM Anne Marie has been chronicling Judy Garland's career chronologically through musical numbers...
Episode 3 of The Judy Garland Show (which would eventually air in its eighth week) was an episode of personal importance for Judy. Her oldest daughter, Liza Minnelli, was joining her for a family-themed show. Liza was only 16 at the time, but she'd already begun building an entertainment resume. While in high school (or rather, while skipping high school) Liza appeared on a Gene Kelly TV special, The Jack Paar Program, Talent Scouts, her mother's London Palladium concert, and was in rehearsals for her Off-Broadway debut in Best Foot Forward. However, young Liza somehow found time in her every-busier schedule to put on a family act.
The Show: The Judy Garland Show Episode 3
The Songwriters: Jule Styne (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)
The Cast: Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, directed by Bill Hobin
The Story: Two observations stand out watching this clip: 1) These are two talented women who love to perform and 2) These are two talented women who love to perform together. There's something delightfully meta-textual about their decision to sing a song from Broadway's most dysfunctionally overbearing stage mom. As Judy watches Liza, Garland exudes nothing but pride and excitement to share the stage with her daughter. Likewise, teenage Liza - not yet fully confident in her own overwhelming talent - takes her cue from her mother.
Though they're both polished and skilled performers, this song does not come off as a professional production number. Every improvised forehead touch, handhold, or giggle renders a public performance into a personal mother/daughter moment, exposing that vein of reckless vulnerability that made both women incomparable performers. Anyone who grew up in a musical household will recognize this kind of musical intimacy. This is a mother and a daughter goofing off around the piano at home, or belting showtunes in the car on the way to school. Liza and Judy sing together with real affection and private joy. It just happens a TV camera caught it on tape.
Reader Comments (7)
Sing out Louise ( Liza)!
You can easily see the love. I don't think Liza never really felt she had to overcome or compete with her mother. The complete fun, love and pride showed in the clip…….and contrast that with the Suzanne/Doris relationship in Postcards.
What if we could have seen Judy and Liza in a stage version of Gypsy?! That woulda been sublime.
Sometimes I think Garland was born in the wrong decade,she seems so right for now.
You can indeed see the love and pride there. While I don't think it ever diminished I recall reading an interview with Liza about their later Palladium joint concert once Liza was a bit farther along in her career and confidence and she commented that after her first number went over big a change came over Judy where for the duration of the show she went from mother to competitor. Not in a vicious way at all but recognizing that she had a match on stage she set about upping her game.
By the way I love the long hair on Liza!! It's a nice change, once she found her look in Cabaret she locked in and has really never varied it all these many years.
Because I'm so used to seeing Judy young (circa Wizard of Oz) and Liza as she is now, it took me a few seconds to figure out which one of them was which!
Young Liza do resemble her mother ALOT!!!
A Gypsy version o Judy/Liza sounds great but it might not cut as close as we thot. Judy is no stage mama who pushes her daughter to stardom relentlessly........but Judy's own mama will make a great Mama Rose!
Liza would not have been busy with the Palladium concert. That was not to be until the autumn of the following year.