by
FRANK H. LIEBERMAN
Columnist at Large

 COVER STORY

  Lorna Luft, Judy Garland’s daughter and Liza Minnelli’s half-sister, is really looking forward to her Suncoast engagement. Her reasons may surprise you.

            She says “it’s an odd thing,” but she “embraces and likes people over 40” and she’s been told that’s the age of the audience she’ll be facing June 20-22 when she shares her multi-media production, “Songs My Mother Taught Me – A Celebration of the Music of Judy Garland.”

            Now that she’s over 55 – “and solidly out there” – Luft can embrace her mother’s legacy. It wasn’t always that way.

          “Lot of us in show business today have names attached,” she says. “Many of us have stars as parents, few have legends and there is a major difference. I believe you really don’t get to know your parents until your 40s, and, then their gone.

            “I got into my early 30s and still didn’t want to face my life. It was so frustrating. I was so angry, annoyed and it was painful,” she continued. “Fortunately, the gay community kept her (her mother) legend going for which I’m so grateful. They shared stories with me that I knew nothing about. They actually filled in a lot of my life.”

            Luft has two children (a son, 23 and a daughter 17) of her own. She says she’s carrying the family torch because nobody else in the family will have kids.

            “I’m a parent first and foremost,” she says with a proud tone in her voice. “I don’t want them ending up in rehab. I do everything possible to have them live a regular life. It’s not easy, but I believe it’s working.”

 “Songs My Mother Taught Me -- A Celebration of the Music of Judy Garland” is a theatrical extravaganza that melds one of the world’s most familiar songbooks with personal memories of a loving daughter. 

Variety called it “a rousing, dramatically riveting musical event” and the Los Angeles Times called her performance “heart-stopping and thrilling… an incandescent revelation not to be missed.” 

A CD based on the concert, produced by fellow Las Vegas headliner Barry Manilow and Colin R. Freeman, is out on First Night Records.

“For decades Manilow had been urging me to create a musical tribute to my mom.  ‘You have to do this’ he’d tell me, ‘It’s your great mission in life to continue her legacy.’ 

 “Well, for a long time that legacy was just too overwhelming, just too personal for me, her daughter. But a few years ago I had reached a point in my life where I did become a little more comfortable with the comparisons and the legacy.   I felt I had come full circle and might be able to undertake the challenge of celebrating her legacy; so I called Barry to tell him I thought I was finally ready to attempt it.  He was ecstatic! 

“He said there were only two people to write this show: Ken and Mitzie Welch.  He’s worked with them for years and trusted that they could find the right framework to celebrate my mom. When I first spoke with the Welch’s, they said if I just wanted to sing a bunch of her songs – they weren’t interested. 

“However, if I wanted to take the audience on a musical journey of my mom’s life as it
relates to me – then they’d be very interested.  So thus began the creation of the most personal, most important show I’ve ever been part of.”

Luft’s career has encompassed virtually every arena of entertainment.  A live performer, stage, film and television actress, best selling author, recording artist and Emmy-nominated producer, she continues to triumph in every medium with critics labeling her one of the most vibrant, versatile and exciting artists on stage today.

Born to producer Sid Luft and Garland, music and entertainment was an integral part of her childhood.  At age 11 she made her television debut singing on her mother’s series, The Judy Garland Show.  At 16, already a seasoned performer, she shared the bill with her mom on Broadway in a concert engagement at New York’s Palace Theater.
By 19, she was stopping the show on her own: starring on Broadway in Neil Simon’s hit musical “Promises, Promises.”  She continued on the New York stage as “Peppermint Patty” in the musical “Snoopy” and then took a dramatic turn alongside Farrah Fawcett in “Extremities.” 

Following the 2004 West End debut of her one woman show “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” she starred in the 2006 blockbuster UK premiere production of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas: The Musical.”  She quickly followed that success with the 2007 hit revival of Rodgers and Hart’s “Babes in Arms” at the prestigious Chichester Festival Theatre.  She reprised her role in “White Christmas: The Musical” for the 2007 winter season at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Wales Millennium Centre.

Concurrent with her theatrical career, Lorna is a gifted live performer frequently featured as a concert artist at the world’s most prestigious venues including the Hollywood Bowl, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium, and L’Olympia in Paris.  She’s had the honor of performing for the Royal Family at London’s Royal Albert Hall in concerts celebrating Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ira Gershwin.  In 2006 and 2007 she garnered acclaim for her surprise duet appearances with singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright at his celebrated tribute concerts to her mother.

In the summer of 2007, Lorna joined Alan Cumming and Margaret Cho as part of the voice cast of Logo Network’s animated series Rick & Steve.  A UK television favorite, she frequently appears as a guest and sometime co-host on ITV’s popular Loose Women.  In 2004 she was the subject of a highly rated BBC documentary titled Somebody’s Daughter, Somebody’s Son.  

She joined her sister in an electrifying duet on the Tony Awards and was a featured performer on PBS’s Jerry Herman’s Broadway at the Bowl.  In films, she is most remembered by fans of all ages as Pink Lady “Paulette Rebchuck” in the camp classic “Grease 2.”

In 1998 Lorna added a new dimension to her career, that of New York Times best-selling author upon the release of her critically acclaimed memoir – “Me and My Shadows”  It was optioned by ABC-TV and broadcast as a four hour miniseries starring Judy Davis in Feb. 2001.  Lorna served as co-executive producer on “Life with Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows” which won five Emmys.