Kurt Weill's last completed work before his death, the musical Lost in the Stars, written with Maxwell Anderson, lyricist, will be the second Encores! production of the City Center season. There will be five performances: February 3 and 4 @ 8 P.M.; February 5, 2 and 8; and February 6, @ 6:30. 

Gary Griffin [The Color Purple, The Apple Tree revival; Olivier nom, West End Pacific Overtures , is directing, with Rob Berman as M.D. and choreography by Chase Brock. Jack Viertel is A.D. of the Tony-honored Encores!

Headlining this classic will be Chuck Cooper [Tony winner, The Life, Finian's Rainbow, Caroline, or Change], who possesses one of the most impressive voices in theater, Daniel Breaker [Tony winner, Passing Strange; and Drama Desk-nom Shrek], Patina Miller [Public's Delacorte Hair; Olivier nom for her role as Deloris Van Cartier in the West End Sister Act, which she'll reprise on Bway] and Sharon Washington [The Scottsboro Boys].

 
Daniel Gerroll, Stephen Kunken [Tony nom, ENRON, High, Rock 'n Roll, Frost/Nixon], John Douglas Thompson [DD-nom, The Emperor Jones; Obie-winner, Othello], Sherry Boone [Marie Christine, Ragtime, Master Class] and an additional cast of 28 are featured.

LITS, the second and final collaboration between Weill and Anderson, was billed as a "musical tragedy" when it opened in 1949 on Bway [playing 281 performances]. It's based on Alan Paton's celebrated novel Cry, the Beloved Country, which as does the musical presents an uncompromising social indictment of South Africa apartheid through two aging men - one black, one white, who are brought together by shared grief.

The score contains blues, rousing chorales, folk, operatic-like arias, and elements of popular music. One of the strongest elements of the musical is the use of the ensemble to represent the people of Johannesburg, black and white, to propel the story forward. In addition to the poignant title tune, the songs "Stay Well" and "Trouble Man" have had a life through the years.

Weill and Anderson's collaboration included the 1938 musical comedy Knickerbocker Holiday, which introduced the famous "September Song." It received a spectacular semi-staged production by Collegiate Chorale at Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday and Thursday.

Encores! is supported by the Stephanie and Fred Shuman Encores Fund, American Express, Stacey and Eric Mindich and Newman's Own Foundation. LITS is funded, in part, by the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. 

Tkts for Lost in the Stars, $25-$100, are available at the City Center box office, through CityTix at (212) 581-1212 or online at www.NYCityCenter.org.

More on Weill and Anderson

A symposium, Kurt Weill + Maxwell Anderson: Collaboration in Musical Theatre, will be held Friday, February 4, at 5 pm at CUNY Graduate Center's Martin Segal Theatre Center [365 Fifth Avenue at 34^th Street], presented in association with the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. Stephen Hinton, professor, music, Stanford U.;  and the Kurt Weill Foundation's Elmar Juchem and Kim H. Kowalke will be panelists; theater scholar and CUNY Graduate Center's David Savran will moderate. Admission is free and open to the public.

Opera Treasure Trove

What contributed to Disney and the Disney resorts becoming "The Happiest Places on Earth"? No doubt, the simple, but catchy tunes of the prolific, Oscar-winning Sherman brothers. The feature doc The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story [Disney Home Entertainment; one disc; SRP, $30] pulls back the curtain on the unknown relationship between Disney Studios veteran, celebrated, award-winning tunesmiths composer Richard and lyricist Robert Sherman.

Songs such as "Chim-Chim-Cheree," "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Let's Go Fly a Kite, "Feed the Birds," "Jolly Holiday" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocous" from Mary Poppins; "Hushabye Mountain," "Truly Scrumptious," "Doll On a Music Box" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" from Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang [MGM]; "You're Sixteen"; and "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room," heard in the forthcoming Gnomeo & Juliet - and not forgetting "It's a Small World (After All)" [probably the most heard tune of all time] defined family musical entertainment for over five decades.

However, not all was sunshine and laughs. The brothers were polar opposites: Robert, studious and brooding, carrying the trauma of a WWII injury; Richard, upbeat, carefree. Midway through their career, there was misunderstanding and jealousy that led to a longstanding rift that estranged them until Jeffrey Sherman [Robert's son] and Gregory Sherman, cousins who never knew one another growing up, bridged the gap and collaborated to investigate the root of the separation and bring their fathers together.

The doc, filled with many poignant moments, takes viewers behind the scenes of Hwood's magic factory. In addition to a rare glimpse of the brothers unique creative process, there're tons of knockout bonus material and guests such as Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Jim Dale and Sheldon Harnick. Of course, there're excerpts from the Sherman brothers amazing body of work.

Off Off and Off Bway pioneer and champion Ellen Stewart, 91 and the founder/director of La MaMa ETC, the theatre that began in 1961 and became a major multicultural force of performance art and avant-garde theater, died Thursday at Beth Israel Hospital of natural causes after an extended heart-related illness.

For years, Ms. Stewart, who lived high above her original theatre on East 4th Street and who was directly or indirectly responsible for the build-up of theater in that sector of the East Village, was unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. That didn't stop her from being very hands on. When she needed to be in the theatre, an army of volunteers were always eager to carry her down.

Ms. Stewart, though quite controversial, was venerated by the theater artists whose work she supported with indefatigable energy even a series of deliberating illnesses. In her 49-year tenure, she was unstoppable, presenting over 3,000 productions and earning countless cultural awards worldwide. She was the rare Off Bway artist named to the Theater Hall of Fame.

She's been honored with dozens of Drama Desk Awards, over 30 Obies.and so many honorary doctorates and distinguished service awards that she has an archivist to keep track of them. 

La MaMa started ever so simply. It was such a lark that, according to Mama, no one knew what they were doing. They just had ideas and decided they were going to bring them to fruition.

"Never in a million years did I ever think we would accomplish all we've accomplished and become what La MaMa has become," she says. "Our mission was and is to develop, nurture, support, produce and present new and original performance work by artists of all nations and cultures."

In fact, growing up in Chicago, theater never entered Ellen Stewart's mind. She wanted to be a fashion designer. As a young black woman, she knew it wouldn't be easy. "No surprise," she laughs, "it wasn't. At that time Chicago had nothing on the Deep South as far as racism rearing its ugly head."

To escape, she came to what she thought was very cosmopolitan NYC; but there were surprises here. "Bernard Gimbel, then president of Gimbel's, hired me as an executive designer for their Sak's Fifth Avenue store, but found resistance from their high-end customers." But stick by her, he did. By the time doors started to open, she had met an interesting circle of friends - some in very high places. And, in a nutshell, she decided one night to put on a show.

La MaMa began as a tiny, second-floor space over a Second Avenue tailor shop. Interestingly, Miss Stewart said she didn't start off looking to be controversial, "but we certainly stirred up quite a bit of controversy."

The first play "to get us some headlines" was O'Horgan's 1964 production of Genet's The Maids "because of his decision to do it with boys." She notes that the show that really put La MaMa "on the map," and in more ways than one, was 1967's Futz by Rochelle Owens and directed by O'Horgan.

The dark, very dark, comedy didn't exactly conform to social norms of the day. Without raising her voice in exclaimation - in fact, very matter-of-factly, Mama recounts the story. "It was about a farmer who's had so many bad experiences with women that he falls in love with Amanda, his pet pig, and marries her."

There was also a very attractive, but not too tightly wrapped hayseed who's a peeping Tom. The town's most beautiful and richest girl - a stunning blonde, has a crush on him. While Mr. Futz had "his way" with his pig and promised they'd always be together, the chorus made sexual sounds that excited the boy, arousing great desire for the girl and leading him to do a particular action - onstage. 

The then hot, handsome hunk Frederick Forrest played the boy. Sally Kirkland did narration.

"Tom is a composer and musician," says Mama. "He could play every instrument imaginable. So there he is in the wings with various instruments tied and hanging on him - a one-man orchestra. He had made a living singing on the Borscht Best as a counter tenor and he was making these sounds.

"One night, the boy brings the girl to watch Mr. Futz and Miss Pig. He starts using Mr. Futz's rhythm and the more Mr. Futz gets - gets - you know - yes - aroused, the more the boy gets excited, In a very graphic scene, he rapes the girl. He's arrested and sentenced to hang. His mother comes to pay a last visit and they commiserate in a Southern cracker dialect. To suckle him, she exposes a breast and puts it in his mouth. Well, that's sort of it in a nutshell." There's such a silence, you can hear a pin drop. Breaking the silence, Mama adds, "Right. Nothing like this had been done before. All hell broke loose."

As word spread, lines formed around the block. La MaMa's tiny space couldn't contain the crowds. When asked how long a run the play enjoyed, Mama laughs, "We don't got runs. We never had runs. Unless you want to count me running. La MaMa's early history is marked by the number of times I was running. Running from the police! Always running! We couldn't stay long!"

At first, Mama was thought of as the scourge of the neighborhood. There were vicious complaints and threats to close La MaMa down. At first, there was a huge misconception about what was going on. Many neighbors thought La MaMa was a brothel. She quipped, "A lot of folks wondered why would so many white men be visiting this black woman down in the basement!"

Somehow, and, as she put it, "often by the seat of my panties," the shows went on. La MaMa segued from controversial, East Village "coffee house theater" to what might be called "alternative mainstream."

The first international success - and damnation, came when Mama decided to tour Futz in England and Europe. "After what happened here, imagine this in very conservative Edinburgh!"  Were there protests? "Protests?" she asks. "Oh, yes! The Scottish Daily Mail accused me of exporting filth to their country."

The controversy sold tickets. "They had lines down the block," she states not able to control her excitement or laughter, "and around the block, down and around another block, across the street and down another block. You had to see this scene. There were the people in line and hoards of local women protesting with placards accusing us of all sorts of things. We had to do five shows a night!" As it played Germany and other cities in Europe, the scene was repeated over and over.

"You wanted to know what put us on the map!" Mama shrieks. "That did it! We were known! So, when thee was all that fuss over nudity in Tom's Hair, we laughed. That was nothing!"    
 
Futz! transferred to what is now the Lucille Lortel and the Actor's Playhouse; and was filmed, says Miss Stewart, "with Sally riding buck naked on a pig!"

A New Tosca for the Met

Acclaimed soprano Sondra Radvanovsky made quite a splash last night at the Met as Floria in Puccini's drama-filled, romantic Tosca.,  It was a glorious, passionate occasion - a much more celebrated occasion than her Leonora in Il Trovatore. The night had more of its share of the unexpected.

First, Radvanovsky's Floria: you might still hear echoes of thunderous applause, shouts of bravas, and stomping on the floor during the nearly 10 curtain bows. However, it became evident early on that this was a soprano who could act as well as sing. Her Act II prayer questioning why God has put her in her circumstances, "Vissi d'arte"[I lived for art, I lived for love], brought down the house.

There were several minutes of acclamation from the audience. It was an emotionally-wrenching moment for Radvanovsky. She was in tears. It may have been the beauty of the aria, or the fact that she was simply thrilled to get through it.

The Met appearance is the prelude to Radvanovsky repeating the role at La Scala next month. Before heading over, she'll perform Tosca at the Met this Friday, Monday, January 21, January 25, and the matinee of January 29. Tosca will be broadcast on the Toll Brothers-Met Opera International Radio Network on January 29.

Celebrated tenor Marcelo Álvarez was schedule to co-star as the pro-Rome Republic painter Cavaradossi. He was sidelined with a cold and didn't make the dress. There were high hopes that he'd be recovered for the first performance. However, Met GM Peter Gelb stepped onstage to announce that he was indesposed and that the equally-celebrated tenor Robert Alagna would take his place. The news was met with equal disappointment and excitement.

Though Alagna has played Cavaradossi many times, this would be his first at the Met. He was in a taxi on his way to a lunch meeting in Little Italy when Gelb was able to reach him. There was only time for a one hour Act One blocking session. He and Radvanovsky did their vocal warmups right onstage prior to curtain. Gelb joked that the Met wardrobe department worked a miracle in very little time and that Alagna would be wearing the boots he wore as Don Jose Saturday night in Carmen.

Radvanovsky was probably already a bundle of nerves, none of this could have helped. Luckily, they know each other and have sung together in a London  Trovatore. They were a powerhouse duo.
 

Before the Act One set could be struck, Met photographer Marty Sohl rushed the stars onstage for a series of photos.

The audience was rooting for Alagna, but nothing prepared them for the beauty of his Act One "Recondita armonia" [secret harmony]. He brought the house down.

Alagna rose tremdously to the occasion, especially since he hadn't sung the role in a while. When he came onstage for his bow, the handsome French tenor of Sicilian descent, immediately ran to the prompter's box and enthusiastically shook hands.

Directing is the Paris-based Swiss Luc Bondy, who says, "One of opera's best roles is that of the lecherous villian, police chief Scarpia." Like Les Miz's police chief Javert, he's a man you love to hate. But embodied by German bass baritone Falk Struckmann, it's difficult to hate someone who sings so beautifully. 

Conducting the 76-piece strong Met orchestra is Marco Armiliato, in his first Met performance of Tosca.  There's hope that Alvarez will be able to perform on Friday in this co-production of the Met, La Scala, and Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper.

Radvanovsky had nothing but high praise for Alagna. However, having performed with Argentina's Álvarez in the opera in Denver, she was delighted to be working with him again. Soon, she will have her wish.

"Marcelo is an inspiring singing actor," she states. "When you're on stage with him, he makes you feel as if you're the only person in his world. The audience doesn't exist for him. He's made me cry more than once during a performance, which is good and bad. It's good because you know that he's touching the hearts of the audience. But the bad is that then I have to sing!"

Known for excelling in some of the most difficult soprano roles, the depth and color of Illinois- native Radvanovsky's voice is well known at the Met and in opera circles. But last night, she reached a new plateau. There will be even greater expectations in April, when she returns from La Scala, to reprise her acclaimed Leonora in Il Trovatore, which will have a Live in HD transmission.
 

[On March 25, Violeta Urmana take over as Floria, in her house debut, opposite Salvatore Licitra's Cavaradossi, and James Morris's Scarpia.].

Having sung at the Met, she's accustomed to the acoustics but reminds herself that there's danger in pushing her voice. "You run the risk of cracking, as well as sacrificing vocal beauty," she explains. "It's about technique and supporting my sound with air - what the Italians call 'sul fiato,' so I'm always in control."

She feels her voice "speaks" better at the top of her range. "Most of the dramatic climaxes happen on high notes, like the high C's in Act II in the scenes with Scarpia. Floria's stronger and more determined in what she wants, and that is to run away with the man she loves. So I try to start the opera as this young, fresh woman who laughs and is in love. What's important is to find the human side of her." 

As opera progresses, Floria goes to great lengths to prove Cavaradossi's innocence. At the end, she feels caught with no way out and takes the action she takes.

Radvanovsky loves Verdi, but she's finding herself attracted to Puccini. "His music is hummable and you can't help but have the melodies in your head. I'm also drawn to Puccini for the drama, the verismo style of acting. Many of his operas happen in real time, and I love to keep the action moving. Best of all, and one of the greatest things about opera, are all the heightened feelings. It's a way for me to become someone else for a few hours and to purge my soul of any sadness."

An Oscar Worthy Stand Up

Emmy-winning writer/comedian, actor and veteran contributing writer to the Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys Bruce Vilance will debut his new act, Writer on the Verge, tonight and tomorrow at 8:30 P.M. at Feinstein's at Loews Regency. You can expect some of his eclectic eyewear and unique T-shirts, but probably not as many changes as Joan Collins and Mitzi Gaynor had.

There'll be sendups, such as those he blurted on Hollywood Squares, where he was head writer [no, those witty quips the celebs utter don't materialize from think air!] and gossip about  working with Bette Midler, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg. If Brucie gets nasty about Donny and Marie, just remind him he used to write for their TV show, not to mention the Brady Bunch, Lily Tomlin, Joan Rivers, and Richard Pryor.

Admission is $25 [$40, premium seating], with a $25 food/beverage minimum. To reserve, call (212) 339-4095 or go online at TicketWeb.com or Feinsteinsatloewsregency.com.

Vereen on CD and in Concert
 

Upcoming are Capitol Steps, February 25; Don Mclean, March 29; Linda Eder, May 20; Kelli O'Hara, June 3, and the new season of the hit series Broadway by the Year with Musicals of 1932, 1982, and 1997 on, respectively, March 21, May 16, and June 20. Tickets are $45 and $50 and $45 and available at the T.H. box office and through Ticketmaster [(800) 982-2787 or online at www.ticketmaster.com]. Subscription BBTY season tkts are available at the box office. For more information, visit www.the-townhall-nyc.org. 

Landmark Exhibitions at the Met
 

Ninety exquisite objects that once adorned a compound in China's Forbidden City will go on view February 1 [through May 1].  The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City will present sumptuous murals, furniture, architectural elements, Buddhist icons, and decorative arts from 18th Century China -- almost all of which have never before been seen on public display. Highlights will include an imposing portrait of the Qianlong Emperor, magnificent thrones executed with impeccable craftsmanship, a monumental 16-panel jade-and-lacquer screen, and a radiant silk panel depicting a Buddhist shrine.

Cézanne's Card Players, beginning February 9 [through May 9], will unite works from the famous series, created in the 1890s while Cézanne lived at his family's estate outside Aix-en-Provence, and bring together a majority of  the artist's related paintings, oil studies, and drawings. The series was one of Cézanne's most ambitious projects and it occupied him for years.

The Met holds one of the world's finest Cézanne collections and, in 1913, was the first U.S. public institution to acquire a painting by the artist.  Along with its The Card Players, the exhibit will also show Seated Peasant from the museum's Annenberg Collection, along with major loans from U.S. museums, such as the National Gallery of Art, and numerous ones around the world, such as the, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Musée d'Orsay, and the State Hermitage.

Must See TV

Michelle and Robert King's The Good Wife [CBS] returns tonight with new episodes. Amid murder most foul, tensions at Lockhard Gardner grow. Breaking up is hard to do, but that's what's afoot as partners Christine Baranski, in a very meaty, non-boozing dramatic role, and Josh Charles battle. Julianna Margulies, as dark-haired, smoldering beauty Alicia, attorney wife of disgraced Chicago politician Chris Noth, seems heading for a romantic triangle. Can things get any steamer between Margulies and Noth? After all this is broadcast TV. 

Excellent support comes from Alan Cumming as a political operative;  greasy, sneaky Matt Czuchry, who's jumped ship to the D.A.'s office but who can sometimes fool you into thinking he actually has a heart; mysterious firm investigator Scott Porter [first season, Friday Night Lights]; and, in one of the best performances on any screen, tenacious Archie Panjabi, assigned to do the firm's dirty work and who could teach the underhanded new tricks. Though set in Chicago, the series is shot here and you can always expect a guest roster of Bway names.

Are you now or have you ever been...? Ricky Martin, as he changes diapers and plays with his twins, tells all - or a semblance of it, on Wednesday sitting opposite inquisitive-mind-wants-to-know Oprah [ABC], who throws some pretty hardhitting pitches to the former pop idol and forthcoming Che in Tim Rice and ALW's revival of Evita. Neither beat around the mulberry bush. THowever, the Big O didn't give him a car or fly him to Australia.

Scott Siegel announced the concert Marc Kudisch: The Lower Depths - In Defense of the Baritone Voice, scheduled for Saturday, at Town Hall, has been postponed "due to unexpected circumstances related to the recent blizzard that crippled New York." He noted that refunds will be sent to ticket buyers who purchased via mail; others can get refunds at the T.H. box office. Siegel adds, "A new date and location are expected to be announced soon."

Songs My Mother Taught Me, at Feinstein's at Loews Regency through Sunday, is Lorna Luft's tribute to mom Judy Garland. It's a magical trip down the yellow brick road.

Luft early on says that mom JG kidded her about preferring "the loud songs." Evidently, mama knew this gal was a belter.  

The show, penned by TV variety sketch veterans Ken and Mitzi Welch [Carol Burnette shows, a Streisand TV special], opens on a poignant note: JG on her TV variety series singing to her young daughter a song specially written for her by Johnny Mercer, "Lorna."

Then come the loud ones! Performing with an 11-piece orchestra, M.D.'d by Colin Freeman, Luft knocks "Swanee," "Chicago," "Rockabye Your Baby (with a Dixie Melody)," "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," and "I Feel a Song Coming On" right out of the ballroom.

What follows are Garland's signature ballads, such as "The Man That Got Away," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "You're Nearer," "Through the Years," and a song JG sang in her last film, I Could Go On Singing, "Hello, Bluebird."

The tunes are interspersed with projected photos and home movies transferred to video. Through modern technology, Luft sings several duets with JG.

A showstopping segment that assures you are seeing/hearing a singer onstage is Luft's 25-song medley bracketed into a Born in a Trunk sequence that follows her mother from The Wizard of Oz to being fired by M-G-M [where she made over 25 films in 13 years], her comeback, returning vaudeville to the Palace and her celebrated Carnegie Hall show. Among the songs are well-remembered tunes from The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, Easter Parade, The Harvey Girls, Summer Stock, and A Star is Born.  It's an amazing feat, a triumph - and afterwards she goes on singing! 

Just not one particular song. Luft refuses to do "Over the Rainbow," the tune most closely associated with JG, stating, "It would be too painful, and you can't improve on perfection."

Losing her mother at 16 was a devastating blow. "But Mama's never gone away," she explains, "and she'll always be with me. I remember her every time I enter a store and see her as Dorothy on a greeting card, hear her songs on the radio, see her movies on TV.

"When you lose a parent at any age," she continues, "it's life changing, but it was particularly tough as a teenager." Luft is blunt about her years segueing into adulthood. "I was living here, and there was Studio 54, where I became a regular. I dyed my hair purple and sang with Debbie Harry."

She made her solo debut in A.C. on the Steel Pier, sharing billing with Wanda, the Diving Horse. Luft can never be accused of sitting back on her laurels. Her career has encompassed every arena of entertainment: concerts, stage, film, TV, records, best selling author, and Emmy-nominated producer.

At 11, she made her TV debut singing on The Judy Garland Show.  At 16, she shared the bill with JG on Bway in a fabled month-long engagement at the Palace. By 19, she had joined the cast of Bway's Promises, Promises.  She went on to play Peppermint Patty in Snoopy, then starred with Farrah Fawcett in the brutally dramatic Extremities.  She's been a perennial in stock, regionals, and national tours here and abroad.

All along friends urged her to sing her mother's songs, "but I ran. I was desperate to take my own footsteps. At that stage in my life, I didn't have the strength and ability to give mama's songs what they deserved. It was scary. I had to be strong and emotionally ready, and I wasn't. Fortunately, when I got in my 40s, I could say 'I can do this. I can look at the photographs, the movies, listen to the albums, and not be sad. I began to fully understand this woman who was my mother and my relationship with her. It was a process I had to go through."

Luft points out that friends who had lost a parent, such as Natalie Cole, Lucie Arnaz, and Lisa Marie Presley, helped her transition. "It's been so fulfilling," she beams, "that I wish I'd done it earlier."

Luft explains she stayed away from her mother's songs for a long time. "ran the other way because I was desperately trying to take my own footsteps. You don't get to know your parents until you're in your 40s. As I got older, I could put myself there. Finally, in my 40s, I was able to do it. I didn't have the strength or  ability to give this what it deserved. I had to be strong and emotionally ready, and I wasn't."

She explained that only after she'd written My and My Shadows, and it was adapted for a TV movie, which she exec produced, was she able to face the idea she couldn't rid herself of.  "I was able to say, 'I can do this now.' Everyone and their brother have recorded these songs. Why not me?"

However, you won't hear Luft sing "Over the Rainbow." In what should be a truly poignant moment at the finale, you hear a portion of JG's recording, but at the same time Luft is singing the poignant "Shining Star." It could be that the Ballroom is not equipped for dueling amplification, but what should be a flawless moment isn't quite that.
 
Luft explains it's impossible not to be overcome with memories. "They flash through my head, and they give me strength. It's also my way of paying tribute to the wonderful human being my mother was. One thing that really bugs me is when I hear people say how sad my mother was. She was always happy, no matter the circumstances."

In her concert, she tells a hilarious story of a later JG boyfriend who ran off from the Essex House here with what was left of her mother's jewelry. JG swore revenge, picked up the phone, got connected to the police, and "put on an Academy Award-winning performance" as she reported the theft and where the bf was staying. The clincher was her telling the police that the bf was obsessed with Judy Garland. When the police broke down his door and took him away in handcuffs, he was screaming of his love of JG. He went straight to Bellevue.  

She spoke of the Who's Who in show business who passed through their homes [her godfather was none other than Ole Blue Eyes, a devoted life-long friend of JG's]. "We were always singing around the house," she observes. "You never knew who'd pop by. At parties, there was no stopping mama. No one ever had to beg her to sing. She loved doing it." Since childhood, JG had been programmed to perform at the drop of a hat. "She was amazing. Sometimes, I'd step back and think 'Where's that voice coming from?'"

She reports that JG was a wonderful human being. "She was witty, kind, and smart. I mean, look when she started in the business and who she worked with. A lot of that had to rub off! She was the whole package. That's what the show's about. The person, the talent, the songs. It's not about her personal life."

Luft observes that in the early years there was a lot of travel - "not always because I wanted to. There were 17 schools in 17 cities. I got very good in geography, but couldn't spell geography."

Travel's still in her blood. She and Freeman, who's her husband [almost 20 years], have taken Songs My Mother Taught Me around the country, to U.K. [and the West End], Ireland, Australia, and China. They met in 1992, in the U.K. when she was appearing in the revue, Hollywood & Broadway, and Freeman was M.D. She says of him, "He's the half that makes me whole." [Luft has two adult children from a previous marriage, Jesse, who's a stockbroker, and Vanessa, who aspires to be a chef.]

Regarding Peter Quilter's End of the Rainbow, currently on the West End and billed as a play with music, starring Tracie Bennett [U.K. Hairspray, Les Miz], Luft says, "I'm not interested in seeing any of that."

The piece is set in 1968 in Garland's hotel room as she embarks upon her show at London's Talk of the Town at a low point in her career as she attempts to keep going. Though the show's gotten raves for Bennett, it's not always, so to speak, over the rainbow.

Ironically, in 1974, Luft appeared at London's Talk of the Town, which was the site of her mother's last club date. "That was quite a rollercoaster ride with all the emotions that were going through my head."

 
Quilter has stated, "Garland's an icon, unique. She was a fascinating, charming, compelling, and incredibly funny woman - always.  Life, love and fame just got the better of her. Once your brilliance reaches the heights that Garland reached, you have immortality in your grasp.  She'll be written about forever."

True as that may be, Luft's not having any of it. "That show is everything I hate. When someone does a show about one part of my mother's life and exploits only the tabloid issues, I resent it. Friends have seen it and for some reason have felt they had to tell me about it. They said Ms. Bennett throws herself arounds room, screams, and yells. That's not my mother! She was about the work she did, the songs she sang, the gifts she left to us.

"If you don't tell the entire story, A to Z, as I attempted in my book and as the TV movie did, you can't do justice," continues Luft. "Mother was always happy in spite of the ups and downs. Amazingly, she always looked at the glass as half full. She was tiny, but she had incredible strength."

Lorna Luft: The Songs My Mother Taught Me is available from First Night Records, co-produced by Barry Manilow and Freeman. For much more on Lorna Luft, visit www.lornaluft.com.

For a number of occasions, Jackie Hoffman's home-away-from-home has been Joe's Pub. Only to be slightly outdone by Sondheim 80^th celebrations, The Hoff's back there again Monday and January 17 with Jackie Five-Oh! her blisteringly funny, often F-word-filled non-family hollercast celebrating her 50^th birthday.

She's out for blood! Hoffman muses on her own show biz decay and the fact that she's seems only to play 'bit' parts onstage [of course, not true] or land on the cutting room floor in her occasional bouts with Tinsel Town - or get fired before she even starts working.

Hoffman's at her unflinching best skewering such sacred cows such as the Tonys and being not quite downright nasty but nasty enough about Queen Latifah, Kristin Chenoweth, and Mary Tyler Moore. She's making it known she wants a role in a Holocaust musical. She def has thoughts on the critical drubbing The Addams Family received and loves reminding anyone who'll listen that it's one of the biggest hits in town. She's quite adept at flinging acid barbs at theater's critical hierarchy - especially one critic at U.S.A. Today, "our go-to newspaper for theater," who found her irriating.

 
Something only her most devoted fans know is that Hoffman can sing, and not always bellowingly. She has a range that's about 50% Midler and 50% Stritch and a very wide mouth that easily delivers her explosive comments.

She's quite upset that doesn't have much to do in TAF. Hoffman relates that originally Grandma wasn't even in Act Two, but eventually it dawned on the creative team that they needed someone in front of the curtain to distract audiences during a huge set change. Why stand there and not sing? To that end, she valiantly [co-wrote with M.D. Bobby Peaco, a song for herself and submitted it to lyricist/composer Andrew Lippa.

"The one sure way to endear yourself to a musical's composer," she blurts, "is to write your own song." Lippa didn't seem to rise to the occasion, but Hoffman debuts the song Queen Latifah [for "stealing" a film role she was set to play and thus denying her her in the show. You know what? It ain't bad, and could have been the one tune audiences might be humming as they exit up the aisles.

Not everything, especially a couple of the songs, works as effectively as Hoffman, who might consider adding a couple of seconds of charm. Of course, that would change the whole tenor of bitter career reflection. However, give her credit for having chutzpah!

Met's Closed-Circuit HD La Fanciulla

Quad Treats on DVD

You'll never want for more classic entertainment from the Golden Age of 1930s Hollywood musicals. The new quad pack DVD entries in Turner Classic Movies Greatest Classic Film Collection [Warner Home Video, two back-to-back discs; SRP $28] will provide countless hours of eye-popping musical numbers.

Busby Berkeley Musicals, includes four top-drawer razzle-dazzle extravaganzas from the absolute master of razzle-dazzle extravaganzas - all in glorious B&W and sumptuously-staged: Dames, Gold Diggers of 1937, Footlight Parade, and 42nd Street.

Each are authentic classics, with the likes of Dick Powell, James Cagney, the stupendous Joan Blondell, Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler, and a featured cast of old pros hoofing, crooning, and cutting up. There are memorable songs, such as "With Plenty of Money and You," "By a Waterfall," "Shanghai Lil," "I Only Have Eyes for You," All's Fair in Love and War and, in 42^nd Street, "Shuffle Off to Buffalo."

You may be surprised to find that Keeler doesn't improve with age. She's quite a clunker - no great singer or dancer, but she gets out thee and gives it her all.

The star here is Berkeley, pulling out all the stops in awesome precision-formation, over-the-top, magnificently imaginative production numbers you simply have to see to believe. Keep in mind this was the Depression!; and that though some of his numbers are supposed to be set on Bway stages, there was [and probably still isn't] no stage that could hold them. Bonus material galore, but the prize is the behind-the-scenes featurette Busby Berkeley's Kaleidoscopic Eyes.

TCM's Greatest Classic Film Collection: Astaire & Rogers is also a two-disc, quad pack with The Gay Divorcee,  Top Hat, Swing Time, and Shall We Dance. Numbers include "The Continental," Berlin's "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails" and "Cheek to Cheek," as well as songs by the Gershwins [the classic "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" performed on skates, no less], Porter, and Kern/Fields. Bonus material galore. Pure bliss!

How About Some Sinatra?