As many readers of this blog probably already know, when I was already nearing retirement, I started taking singing lessons, joined the Gotham Rock Choir, and then made my way to start taking Cabaret singing lessons. The journey was and still is exciting, challenging, and pushes the envelope way beyond the “normal” scope of what you’d expect for a 42 year veteran in the relatively staid and conservative mortgage banking world.
A couple of years back, our cabaret director decided to have an entire show dedicated to celebrate Judy Garland’s 100th birthday. And so, she announced that everyone in the group would need to select at least 3 songs to sing that she was famous for. I could only think of one song and sure, I love “Over the Rainbow” just like millions of other people and I’m always moved by its sentimentality and longing for something better in life. That always “gets me” (and I have to admit -the show and the song is one of my all time favorites) But still—imagine me at 69 years old singing that song—not the right image, and bit too whimsical and out of sync for where I am in life. And besides, literally thousands of singers have done covers of the song and I knew that I couldn’t do it justice.
My problem was that it was the only Judy Garland song that I ever knew! I couldn’t think of any others and so I started doing a google search for something that would “fit” my personality. There simply wasn’t a single song of hers that I could see myself liking let alone singing for an audience. Knowing that I was having some trouble with this, our pianist for the cabaret show excitedly came up with this suggestion: He said, well, why don’t you sing the cowardly lion’s torch song—“If I Were King of the Forest”. I thought he was out of his mind! Unfazed by my shock at such a suggestion, he continued by telling me that while true that Judy Garland didn’t sing it, at least she was there on the set of the movie during rehearsals and filming. How’s that for a “stretch”?
Was he kidding?? Absolutely not, and as crazy and wild of an idea that it was, I was intrigued. Could I really pull it off, I asked? He and the cabaret director told me not to worry—they’d help with the acting lessons. Being a little flippant, I asked them if they’d help me with hair and makeup, too!
So, for the next few months, it was grueling—singing lessons (not such an easy song to sing, let alone memorize!), acting lessons, diction and pronunciation lessons, staging of the performance, etc. We even hammed it up by deciding to not only sing, but to also actually coronate me on stage, replete with a crown, scepter and a red royal mantle cape (believe it or not, I got all these items from Amazon!!).
So, as the night of performance came near, I unfortunately came down with a bad cold and by show night was barely well enough to sing. “The show must go on” as they say in the business so, with that said, here’s the performance.
