More About The Judy Garland Show

Still reading the book about the Judy Garland show I mentioned earlier, and, as I assumed, shit has started to hit the fan. Judy was more openly hitting the sauce, stopped coming to the set until a day before (or the day of) taping, then most of the producers and writers were fired (with no other than Norman Jewison being brought on to finish off the season as Executive Producer). The week Liza was to make her first appearance, Judy was wildly enthusiastic...about Liza. When Mel Tormé (author of the book and writer of the musical material for the show) tried to teach Judy a snazzy version of "Put on a Happy Face, " Ms. Garland said "give it to Liza." And they did. I have yet to see a production number from a variety show that I didn't think was super-weird, and this is no exception, but Young Liza really is a sight to behold. The video starts off with mother and daughter singing "Together Wherever We Go". Then Judy leaves Liza, who acts forlorn as the stage revolves to reveal a bunch of white globes on sticks with painted smiles and bowler hats (like I said, WEIRD). Then Liza--still "sad"--says, "here goes nothing," does a spin and starts singing and dancing her face off. The musical arrangement is actually a lot of fun with new A-section (or "verse"?) which really sounds like it was written for Judy and a jazzy choral arrangement of the familiar tune as Liza dances with a bunch of boys in white sweaters over striped gondolier shirts. Did I mention variety-show production numbers are weird?