Rufus Loves Judy and We Love Him

Sunday night we went to the Hollywood Bowl to see Rufus Wainwright's as-faithful-as-a-gay-guy-can-get recreation of Judy Garland's famous 1961 Carnegie Hall concert. Did I go to this show thinking I couldn't possibly love Rufus more? Yes. Was I wrong? Yes, indeed. Lordy, did I enjoy myself. (Matt said he could tell because I sat there with a goofy grin on my face the entire time.) As usual, we parked in Pasadena and caught the shuttle bus (you'd have to be insane or a masochist or both to drive yourself to the Bowl and face that parking/traffic hell--seriously, what are those people thinking?). My sweet husband knew he was in for an interesting night as soon as the other passengers started boarding the bus. A little bit of backstory here: Matt was actually the third person down on my list of people to invite to this concert. He likes Rufus well enough and all, but enough to enjoy a concert? Of Judy Garland tunes no less? A recreation of an insanely popular and well-known Judy Garland concert revered and nearly worshiped by millions of gay men worldwide? Many of whom were sure to converge upon the Hollywood Bowl in states of near hysteria at the prospect of seeing Rufus Wainwright of all people (a modern gay icon) perform as Judy (a historically gay-embraced icon)? Mmmm, not so much. So being the nice and thoughtful wife that I am, I figured I'd let him off the hook and give him a free night at home to watch "Mythbusters," gorge himself on red meat a/o fried food, play WoW, and scratch his feet or whatever to his heart's content. But then the unimaginable happened: Neither of my dearly loved gay friends wanted to go (one because our seats wouldn't be good enough--he's a bit of a snob, but in a lovable way). Which is why my dear and supportive husband was seated next to me on that Bowl shuttle as the men started streaming on board. Finely-groomed, hair-gelled, hand-talking men, some of whom were dressed quite fabulously. Like this fella who was wearing a tight black and gold stripe sparkly sweater (that I swear to the good Lord above my grandma owned) and giant black Nicole Richie-esque sunglasses. Incidentally, he was with another guy who looked a lot like a chubbier Perez Hilton. Once everyone was settled, we pulled out . . . and made it as far as the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, where we were promptly stopped by police and CalTrans workers informing us that the road was closed due to a mudslide caused by that little bit of rain we had last week. Thankfully, one of the other passengers--we'll call him Helpy McHelperton--knew an alternate route, as our poor bus driver was without a clue. He stood up front and directed her where to go. Coincidentally, he was wearing a jaunty driving cap that matched his jacket.So after a short delay caused by our detour, we arrived at the Bowl. This is where I had my first hopping-in-my-seat-with-excitement moment. Because I'm a bad and lazy wife and didn't feel like packing a picnic dinner, we spent nearly $30 on two sandwiches, a small bag of chips, and two waters, and then made our way to our seats. In due time, the lights went down and the show began. Rufus came out wearing white tailored slacks, a navy velvet dinner jacket, a ruffled tuxedo shirt, and a gigantic rhinestone corsage. (It was at this moment that Matt had the revelation: Rufus Wainwright is gay? Apparently he hadn't known that before and thought the high male attendance was due to the Judy factor alone. Hehe.) He looked fabulous and started the show off with "When You're Smiling."If you're not familiar with his music, he's well known for his songwriting and also his unique tone, various vocal affectations, and powerful full-throat delivery. He wasn't in top form this night, I'll admit; it sounded to me like he was a bit under the weather and was on the verge of losing his voice. But he was also singing all of these songs in their original keys--the ones in which Judy performed them, and that's no easy feat. So he missed a few of the high notes, but he handled it with a sense of humor and came off as quite charming. But the real excitement came in the second half. First he invited his sister, Martha (a pretty fantastic and unique performer herself) to come up and sing "Stormy Weather." The crowd loved her and she received the first standing ovation of the night. A bit later he invited his mom, Kate McGarrigle (of the McGarrigle Sisters fame), to join him on the piano while he sang "Over the Rainbow" while seated indian-style on the catwalk. (In Judy's concert, she performed it sitting on the edge of the stage.) Then the best part . . . . At one point during Judy's original show, she stepped into the audience where Rock Hudson was seated and gave him a kiss. Rufus did the same, but this time the guest of honor was none other than Debbie Reynolds! Heavens to Betsy, at this point I was hopping in my seat like mad and slapping Matt's knee, squealing repeatedly, "It's Debbie Reynolds! Honey, Debbie Reynolds!" Here she is with Gene Kelly in a publicity still for Singin' in the Rain.No joke, people, I had tears welling up in my eyes. Matt, on the other hand, was sitting back and clapping politely. He leaned over to me and asked genuinely, "Who?" Oy! (Later, on the way home I tried to fill him in, but nothing was ringing any bells until I remembered that she played Grace Adler's mom on "Will & Grace," an episode of which we happened to have just seen a couple of weeks ago. He was still unimpressed. Sigh. That is until the following day when it dawned on me that there was one bit of info that would impress him: Debbie Reynolds also happens to be Princess Leia's mom, and I'd read online that Carrie Fisher herself was at the concert, seated right next to her lovely mother. That got his attention. Men.) So I was beside myself with happiness, thinking it couldn't get any better when Rufus began singing "After You've Gone" towards the end of the show, and then invited someone to come out and join him for a duet. Out waltzed Lorna Luft, looking gorgeous in a hot pink gown. To borrow a phrase from Pioneer Woman, "lawsy mercy!" The crowd went wild and I was yet again hopping up and down and jerking my head back and forth from Lorna to Matt back to Lorna then to Matt, looking to see if he understood what he was seeing. He didn't. I said, "That's Judy Garland's daughter!" and his face brightened a little and he said, "Oh." That sweet boy, he tried so hard . . . . Ok, so this post has gone on way longer than I intended, so I'll wrap it up the way Rufus did: When the second half was over and he came out for the 5-song-long encore, he was dressed in drag, wearing this famous costume of Judy's from Summer Stock. What fun! I wish I could go back and see it all over again.