JUDY AND ME. To 7 January.
Harrogate
JUDY AND ME
by Isabelle Georges and Frederik Steenbrink
Harrogate Theatre Studio To 7 January 2006
Tue-Sat 7.45pm
Runs 2hr 30min approx
TICKETS: 01423 502116
www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 21 December
Memorable songs finely sung; fine food enjoyably eaten.
A singer, a pianist, songs associated with Judy Garland: who could ask for anything more as a light, Christmas-time non-panto evening? Apart from the fine food served up pre-show and during the interval by Harrogate’s new hospitality star, Hotel du Vin.
The idea of splitting attention between food for the imagination and the more conventional kind of calories runs the risk the imagination will come off second-best. But this is largely material that intrigues or flatters rather than challenging, the sole punch in the recently-filled stomach coming softly at the end. As for creators/performers Isabelle Georges and Frederik Steenbrink, let’s hope they’re served a splendid meal too; they certainly deserve more than starving artists’ leftovers.
Georges, we’re told, was born in France a few years after Garland 1969 death. The young girl was set on her purpose of becoming a singer by the American’s example. So the show’s title is well-chosen; this is not a Garland impersonation – the voice hasn’t the richness or flexibility, though it’s a fine enough instrument in its own right. It’s the story of something between a fascination and an obsession, explored through elements in Garland’s life that demonstrate how much more there is to a career than talent.
Judy, the child-performer who lived to sing and dance, who couldn’t be stopped once she’d started, ended up refusing to go on stage. A film-star who married a film-director she discovered was bisexual, a singer whose energy was dissipated among multiple media shows. Through numbers by Gershwin, Kern, Berlin and Porter among others, one song is missing. When it arrives, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ becomes an elegy for whatever that childhood zest promised but which never arrived.
You can follow Garland’s star or just enjoy the songs (and food). On this evidence, Harrogate’s studio Christmas productions are another example of artistic director Hannah Chissick’s inventive use of places and spaces that, in 2005, has already seen the Theatre take up residence in the town’s Turkish Baths for Nell Dunn’s Steaming and put audiences both sides of the curtain for Alan Ayckbourn’s 2 play House and Garden.
Performers/Directors: Isabelle Georges, Frederik Steenbrink
2006-01-01 19:40:09