On Monday June 1, 2015, some of New York’s greatest entertainers got together at the Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center for the fifth edition of “Night of a Thousand Judys”, Justin Sayre’s annual Judy tribute meant to benefit The Ali Forney Center. The hilarious Sayre hosted the event which he kicked off with a rendition of “Gotta Have Me Go With You” for which he was joined onstage by four extraordinary dances who kept “distracting” him. A timely monologue making mentions of feminist icon Hillary Clinton and trans-icon-to-be Caitlyn Jenner, was followed by an exquisite rendition of “After You’ve Gone” by jazz chanteuse Cyrille Aimée.
During his opening remarks Sayre pointed out that Judy was “a movie star”, which meant that some of the night’s best and brightest numbers paid tribute to her film works. American songbook patron saint Michael Feinstein delighted audiences with a simple version of “If I Only Had a Brain”, which saw him sing the parts of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. The charismatic Kim David Smith confessed to carrying “Australian guilt” over Judy’s death (strangely enough it was a joke about pills, not Peter Allen...) and paid tribute to her with an imaginative “The Trolley Song” done as if Judy had lived into the ‘70s and had become infatuated with disco. Delightful diva Rachel York stopped the show with a grand performance of “The Man That Got Away”, and an equally wonderful Melissa Errico delivered an emotionally vulnerable, oft sweet version of “The Boy Next Door” from Meet Me in St. Louis.
Vincente Minnelli’s classic also served as inspiration for a parody which had Sayre and co. change the iconic Missouri town for Detroit, and featured a scene-stealing Daiva Deupree, Chris Tyler and Aaron Jackson, among others. Sayre also paid tribute to the film with a rather unique rendition of “Under the Bamboo Tree” which had him accompany Jonah Verdon who played the Margaret O’Brien part.
Other wonderful moments included Julie Hill performing “But Not for Me”, Randy Graff doing a medley of “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Come Rain or Come Shine”, Lauren Worsham singing “If Love Were All” and the fabulous Liz Callaway bringing the house down with “I Happen to Like New York”.
And what about “Over the Rainbow” you ask? As it’s become tradition, the song is left for the very end, which includes an audience sing along (for those heathens who don’t know the lyrics, they were included in the program) and saw all the cast members come onstage to perform it. Seeing Graff, Callaway and York standing next to each other while singing this anthem to finding our place in the world felt reassuring beyond words, in a proper ode to Dorothy it made us feel like there was no better place we could have wished to be.
For more information on The Ali Forney Center visit their official website.
