Judy Garland is someone we all think we know.
Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Over the Rainbow. That unmistakable voice and a career that made her one of the most recognisable performers of the 20th century.
But behind the films, songs and Hollywood legend was a much more complicated woman.
As Anna Jane Casey prepares to bring Judy Garland to the stage at Belfast’s Grand Opera House, Belfast Times caught up with her to talk about discovering the woman behind the icon, why she has no interest in simply impersonating Judy, and the moment in the show that stays with her long after she leaves the theatre.
Casey is no stranger to the Grand Opera House, having previously appeared there in Follies. And when our conversation turns to Belfast, her enthusiasm is immediate.
“Ah, I love Belfast! What a great city!”
Judy Garland is someone we all think we know. What surprised you most about her when you started looking beyond the famous songs and films?
"This was a woman who was forced - and I can't stress that word strongly enough- by the studio to do what she did. She was a product. She was forced to get up, forced to go to sleep, forced to dance, forced to sing.
She loved doing it, but even when she was tired, in that time, there was no mental health assistance. There was no care. It was like a product. It was like something you'd buy off Amazon and you just have to trade it. Louis B. Mayer was a nasty, nasty man. She was addicted to drugs at a very young age and then everybody points and goes, "Oh, look at the mess of her."
She was a broken woman.
Nowadays, we'd have helped this person, and that's what shocked me most.
When you’re playing someone as recognisable as Judy Garland, how do you find your Judy rather than simply recreating the voice and mannerisms people already know?
I’m not an impressionist. I’ve said all the way along, I’m not an impressionist, and nobody can sound like her. The way her vocal cords hit together and the tone that she puts into her voice.
Of course, you study everything you can on YouTube, and you watch all the videos of the way she moved and the way she performed. But I’ve become quite addicted to looking at episodes of The Judy Garland Show, which ran for one season from 1963 to 1964.
I’m obsessed with those and how, bless her, even then in the depths of addiction, terrified, the only way she could go on was to take a pill or have a drink, and to watch that is eye opening.
So that’s what I do. I watch her and I try, when we do the songs and the performances, to put that into my body.
Is there a particular moment in the show that stays with you after you’ve left the theatre?
Yes, yes, there is.
The line that says, “Even my own mother insisted I took every pill they gave me.”
That is heartbreaking.
As a parent, to push your child.
Of course, it was a different time. The Gumm Sisters’ act was in the 1920s. That overbearing desperation of a woman who herself, Ethel Gumm, her mum, was shackled by the restrictions of what happened in that time.
“You can’t find any money. I don’t have any skills. Oh my God, my kid does. Right, you’ve got to go out and do it.”
I just think, as a parent, all you want to do is make your children’s lives happier, and at that time poor Ethel Gumm thought she was, and she wasn’t.
So that really stays with me. Her mother insisted she took the pills.
“Come on Judy, you’ve got to get up, you’ve got to go to sleep.”
That’s heartbreaking. Heartbreaking.
If Judy Garland could sit unnoticed in the audience for one performance, what would you most hope she recognised in your portrayal of her?
Well I'd hope she recognised that she was so broken. She was so broken, and she was just desperate to be loved. She just wanted it to be calm and quiet, and I hope that I put that through, that we all just want to be respected and loved, and held by anybody, whether that's a friend, a lover, a parent.
So I would hope that she recognises that that woman is showing that she just really needed to be loved, and thank you for recognising that in me.
You’re returning to the Grand Opera House after Follies. When you come back to Belfast and have a little time away from the stage, is there anywhere you particularly enjoy returning to or still want to discover?
Ah, I love Belfast! What a great city! What an absolutely great city.
You’ve got some beautiful parks. It’s very green. I love the fact that Belfast is green.
Your architecture is stunning. I’m sure in another life I was an architect or a town planner. I’ve become obsessed with architecture and buildings, and you have great buildings in Belfast.
City Hall itself is stunning. The big park, the floral gardens, your great big miniature Kew Gardens greenhouse.
So I’m looking forward to that, and also just the warmth of the Belfast people.
People of Northern Ireland are fantastic!
