Ever since making her debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, Liz Callaway has made a name for herself as one of Broadway’s very best. From Evita to Cats, she has starred in some of the most iconic musical theatre productions and has also conquered the world of voiceovers (Anastasia, The Swan Princess) as well as cabaret. On June 1, Tony nominee Liz Callaway will join a starry lineup of performers in the fifth edition of Night of a Thousand Judys, a Judy Garland tribute to benefit The Ali Forney Center. We had the chance to talk to Ms. Callaway about her favorite Judy Garland moments, her plans for the future, and Sondheim.

What have you prepared for Night of a Thousand Judys?

I’m gonna sing “I Happen to Like New York”. I sang it about a year ago at a concert and I just fell in love with it. I’ve always liked the song but I’d never done it myself.

How was the process of selecting the songs?

In this case, Dan Fortune contacted me to do this and it just occurred to me that since I have a neat arrangement of the song I could do it again. I would imagine the selection is different for each person.

What’s your favorite Judy Garland performance?

Of course I love The Wizard of Oz, I grew up watching that, but I’m a huge Easter Parade fan, it’s one of my favorite movies. I love her in that.

Since we’re talking about classic movies, you played Norma Desmond in Pittsburgh, what are some of your favorite performances in classic films?

I don’t know if I would say this necessarily influenced me, but some of my favorite classic movies are The Sound of Music which is one of the greatest movies ever, I love North by Northwest, Kiss Me Kate and all those great MGM movies, Singin’ in the Rain is close to perfect. Another one of my favorites I watch every Christmas is Holiday Inn, I can recite all the lines from that.

What about performances you drew from to play Norma Desmond specifically?

It’s interesting, I had sung “As If We’d Never Said Goodbye” in a symphony concert, so I was familiar with the score and I loved “Perfect Year”, but until I was asked to do it, believe it or not I had never seen the original movie. Isn’t that crazy? It’s one of those movies for some reason I hadn’t seen and of course it was brilliant! I saw it a few times, I saw some YouTube clips of Glenn Close, Betty Buckley and Elaine Page, which were helpful because I had such a short rehearsal process. I also saw some old Gloria Swanson movies, her silent films which were so interesting to watch because it was all about her face. It was helpful for me to see what other people did, but everyone’s Norma is completely theirs and original to them. I loved playing her and I hope I get to play her again.

Whenever I talk about Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard and Judy Garland in A Star is Born I can’t help but complain about how they both lost the Oscar for Best Actress.

Oh wow, I never realized Gloria lost too! A Star is Born is such a great movie, I saw it years ago in St. Mark’s Place with my sister and it was amazing. There was absolutely no one like Judy Garland and it’s fun now to go see her TV specials on YouTube. Just recently I saw her do a duet with Steve Allen, after Marilyn Maye had suggested we did it together, and to see what Judy did and all the mediums she did was amazing. She was an original, no one will ever be like Judy Garland, which is why it’s fun to do a tribute to her.

I’ve always wanted to ask how did you and your sister end up doing the theme song from The Nanny? Now that the show is about to finally be released on DVD, I have been singing the theme song nonstop.

(Laughs) That makes me so happy. Ann met Fran Drescher because she came to see a cabaret show she’d done, years ago. Fran met Ann and told her she was working on a new series and asked if she wanted to take a crack at writing the theme. So we did a demo of it, we went into a studio and did a demo that we ended up using. I sang backup for her. Ann’s written a lot of great songs and TV themes that no one has heard, because they haven’t been done, and when she did this she had no idea of what it would become. The series was a hit but also the song is so famous and it’s known internationally too. I was in Belgium and I put the TV on and there was The Nanny, the show had been translated but the theme song was us, I don’t think in her wildest dreams she imagined it would become one of the last great TV themes. They don’t really do TV themes anymore and it’s such a great song. I’m so happy it’s coming out on DVD, that’s such great news.

You mentioned The Sound of Music and I read somewhere that you wanted to play Maria, but one of my favorite things you’ve done is the recording of Allegro. Do you think that star studded production could have ever happened?

In this day and age you get those great concert versions, I did Follies for instance and it was an example of a dream cast. But can you imagine putting together a Broadway show with all of us? I surely would want to be in it! (Laughs)

You played Young Sally in Follies in Concert, is that a part you’d be interested in revisiting?

Very much so! I had never seen a full production until the last revival and I just loved it. It would be a good time.

It seems that you were born to be in Sondheim pieces too, the first Broadway show you saw was Company and your debut was in Merrily We Roll Along. What do you remember the most about the first (especially because you’ve performed songs from it as an adult) and what has surprised you the most about the legacy of the latter?

What was amazing about that is that both shows happened at the Alvin Theatre and they both were Sondheim and Hal Prince, so to have my first show be Merrily and to work with those people was incredible. My parents saw Company and brought home the album and I could sing every song, and when I was a kid I did a mean “Tick Tock” dance in my living room.

Merrily is one of those shows that was just so ahead of its time and it seems people are still catching up to its brilliance.

Absolutely, I love all his scores, but at least I can’t appreciate them on a first listen, there’s just so much there. You can enjoy them on a certain level but as you study them and listen to them, you just can’t get them out of your mind, the lyrics are so brilliant. It’s very nice to know that even though the show wasn’t a success when we did it, people have such respect for the score, and that makes us all very happy.

When can we expect you back on Broadway? Your calendar seems pretty full but we want you back on the New York stage.

I’d love to come back and do a new show if the opportunity comes up. Although I’m really lucky to be doing all these concerts and shows and traveling - next spring I’m doing a Sondheim concert in France which I’m really looking forward to - but I do have outs in most of my contracts in case a Broadway show comes along (laughs). I love what I’m doing now and I’m making a great living, but my first love is theatre, so it’s just a matter of getting the right part, and hopefully it will be in the not too distance future.

You did the singing voice of Anastasia in the animated film and now that it’s coming to Broadway maybe you can be a part of it.

I still sound very young but I can’t play Anastasia and I’m too young to play the grandmother (laughs) so I’ll definitely be in the audience cheering that one.

Night of a Thousand Judys takes place on June 1 at the Kaufman Music Center. For tickets and more click here.