Rufus Wainwright will perform at The McCarter Theatre Center, Nov. 19.
Rufus Wainwright will present a show titled “Wanted: Judy Garland” at The McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Nov. 19. In it, he will perform numbers from Judy Garland’s 1961 comeback concert at Carnegie Hall, as well as songs from his own albums Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004).
He will be backed by The Princeton Playhouse Sinfonia, led by Solon Snider Sway and Ruth Ochs. Tickets will go on sale June 26, with pre-sales beginning June 24; visit mccarter.org/rufuswainwright.
Garland released recordings from her April 1961 comeback concert as a double live album, Judy at Carnegie Hall, in July of that year. It won four Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance.
Wainwright first performed songs from the concert on June 14-15, 2006, at Carnegie Hall itself, and released recordings from the shows as a double album, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, in 2007. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the Traditional Pop Vocal Album category in 2009.
Wainwright also released a 2007 DVD, “Rufus! Rufus! Rufus! Does Judy! Judy! Judy!: Live from the London Palladium,” featuring footage from a show he had presented earlier that year, and a 2022 album, Rufus Does Judy at Capitol Studios, in which he and a four-piece band performed the Carnegie Hall songs at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, where Garland recorded many of her albums.
Here is a video of Wainwright performing one of Garland’s signature songs, “Get Happy”:
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