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Judy Garland comes back to life at Circle Theatre

September 5, 2013   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:

Not everyone is old enough to have special memories of Judy Garland and her movies. But I certainly do, it so happens that we were both born in the early 1920’s. So when she made her movies with MGM, in particular The Wizard of Oz, I feel a kinship.

And, Sunday night, Aug. 25th, at the Circle Theatre in Alliston, my memories were rekindles as the very talented Debbie Collins of Beeton, brought Judy Garland back to life in splendid musical theatre. The show was a fundraiser for cancer and fund-raiser Wendy Topping hosted the event.

Deb Collins has been in musical theatre for 30 years. She must have started early, as Judy did. She wrote the story herself in 1999 and has performed it a number of times. As the life of Judy Garland unfolds, Debbie delights her audience with songs, with dances and with great story telling.

Judy was born, Francis Gumm, hardly a name you’d expect to see up in lights. In time, with the performer George Jessel giving his opinion, she was reborn as Judy Garland.

Both her parents were on stage, vaudeville style and they were overly ambitious for their three gifted daughters who always appeared as a threesome, but in time Judy was the one the audience liked best. She was the smallest and still very young. She was only two the first time she walked on stage.

As a single act she performed constantly, and sadly, the stress and exhaustion of the entertainment world caught up with her. So her mother, Ethel Gumm, unwisely and tragically gave her “pep” pills, drugs, so she wouldn’t lose her energy. This happened often enough to lay the foundation for Judy Garland’s chronic drug addiction that led to her early death in 1969 at age 47.

But Debbie Collins doesn’t dwell on this as she sings the many songs that Judy Garland made so popular, remember ‘Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis’, ‘The Easter Parade’, and ‘Zing Went the Strings if My Heart’. Judy didn’t just sing in the movies. She gave  concert in Carnegie Hall which is considered legendary.

The accompanist for the event was Michael Leach sitting with his piano at one side of the stage. Sometimes while playing, he would take a small role in one of Debbie’s songs, making appropriate gestures and also harmonizing with Deb.’The program lasted two hours but it went very quickly because we were all having such a good time. And what should we have at the very end, of course, ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’.

Betty Anderson,

Tottenham

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