I would say I grew up listening a lot to Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland and Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. I grew up listening to those because my parents were kind of into folk music.
When you’re Judy Garland and you want something, you just pick up the phone and call somebody. Anybody.
I love being a Givenik Ambassador. Not only does it give me a platform to discuss my favorite charities, but I get to talk about my other favorite topic – ‘The Judy Show!’
And I had to take care of a little dog too named Suzy. It was the promoter’s wife’s – Judy Lynn’s – it was her dog. And one of my duties going on the tour was to take care of it.
Well, I was obsessed with Judy Garland growing up. Like, obsessed.
I grew up with the movies of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Judy Garland – these are the kinds of shows and the kinds of numbers in shows that I dreamed of being in and doing when I was a kid.
I loved Judy Garland. I thought she was such a classic beauty. I thought she was so endearing and charming, and I loved her voice. She was such a dreamer, and I think I was, too – and I am.
I had met a young lady who wanted to be in the theater. It was Judy Holliday. She had somehow fallen down the steps of the Village Vanguard, which still exists today.
I felt Michael Jackson was inspired a little bit more from the elegance of a Fred Astaire. Michael loved Sammy Davis, Jr. and James Brown and Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. But he wasn’t any of those people. To be inspired is one thing, but he made it all his own.
See, I never wrote arrangements for the band for Judy Garland; I did strictly special material, special lyrics, put together all of her medleys.
Judy Garland, Doris Day, and Gene Kelly were all big influences growing up from all of the films. I’m also a huge folk music fan – Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan have influenced a lot of how music can inspire change in our world.
In the not-for-profit world, I never felt that being female was an impediment. I was, however, given my break into commercial theatre by a female producer, Judy Craymer, and women – in particular, Donna Langley, president of production at Universal – were crucial in giving ‘Mamma Mia’ a home in Hollywood.
Commercials are not the only exposure that obesity gets on TV. It is by no means a rarity on the wonderful Judge Judy’s show when both plaintiff and accused all but literally fill the screen.
I loved ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and I’m a huge Judy Garland fan, too.
Adapting a Judy Blume book is something I really wanted to do, and you couldn’t grow up in the ’90s without knowing about ‘Tiger Eyes’ and reading it. It should’ve been assigned to all teenage girls.
Judy Garland’s father was gay. That seems to be the consensus. They left Minnesota and went to California because he got caught with some boy backstage.
‘The Judy Show’ would be the name of my TV show if I had one, but I don’t.
There’s a lot of judges on TV in America. Apart from Judge Judy, the vast majority of them are terrible.
I learned by watching Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.
I never had a favourite book! I liked all kinds of things – science fiction, so I read Heinlen and Ray Bradbury, and I also liked reading about kids like myself, so I read Judy Blume and Norma Klein and Paula Danzinger and a lot of other writers. I also read James Herriot!
I have always wanted to work with Judy Dench, and that hasn’t happened yet, so that would be fun.
My wife Judy and I have two kids: Connor, 17, and Meghan, who is 14. My wife and I no longer worry about what we become – we are worried about what our children become.
I used to scrimp with Judy in one-room apartments.
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