About Town
People, Places,
PreoccupationsTHE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 24 SEPTEMBER 4, 2019
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OTOFEST.^‘Over the Rainbow’ Escapes
MGM Purge for Stage Revival
Newly unearthed arrangements of the Wizard of Oz ballad are ‘a revelation,’
says song stylist Michael Feinstein, who’ll be cheered by Liza Minnelli when
he leads the Pasadena Pops in a faithful rendition Sept. 14 By Seth AbramovitchA
few months ago, famed song stylist
Michael Feinstein was helping his friend
Angela White, daughter of composer
Dave Rose — who was married to Judy Garland
from 1941 to 1944 — move some filing boxes at
her office in L.A.’s Studio City. When he noticed
a folder marked “Over the Rainbow,” he peeked
inside — and was overjoyed at what he found. “It
contained vintage set parts for the song’s original
film arrangement,” says Feinstein,
62, who’s also known as an anthro-
pologist and archivist for the Great
American Songbook.
While a composition as iconic as
Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow”
may seem immutable, most versions
of the ballad from 1939’s The Wizard
of Oz are reconstructed by ear.
That’s because James T. Aubrey,
who ran MGM from 1969 to 1973,
ordered the studio to trash all of its film score
library — what Feinstein calls “an incalculable
tragedy.” By keeping a complete set of original
parts for the song, Rose unwittingly salvaged a
critical piece of Hollywood musical history.
Now Feinstein will bring that bit of history to
life: On Sept. 14, at an evening dedicated to clas-
sic MGM musicals at the Los Angeles County
Arboretum, he’ll conduct the Pasadena Pops in a
rendition of “Over the Rainbow” based on those
unearthed orchestrations. “The original chart has
a lot of orchestral sections that cannot be heard
on the old soundtrack, so it will be a true revela-
tion for people to hear what they have literally
never heard before,” says Feinstein. Of course, the
performance won’t feature the legendary vocals
of a then-17-year-old Garland — that honor will fall
to Tony winner Karen Ziemba — but Garland willbe there in spirit via her daughter, Liza Minnelli.
“My mother would have been proud to know
that her original MGM chart of ‘Over The Rainbow’
is being revived and played again after 80 years,”
says Minnelli, 73. “The arrangers were always very
important to her, from Nelson Riddle and Gordon
Jenkins to Conrad Salinger and Skip Martin at
MGM. She sometimes worked with them to craft
the sound she wanted from the orchestra and
had the best ‘ears’ in the business. I’ll be there to
cheer Michael on and only wish that she could
have been there, too.”
Minnelli doesn’t feel the same warmth toward
Roadside Attractions’ Garland biopic Judy,Brady Bunch
House Becomes
HGTV ‘Gold Mine’H
GTV may be taking up long-
term residence in Studio
City. A year after shelling
out $3.5 million on the L.A. home
that served as the exterior for the
Brady Bunch abode, the network
unveils its loving remodel — in
which the 1970s Paramount lot set
has been re-created, room-for-room,
by castmembers and HGTV talent
— in the four-part event series A
Very Brady Renovation, launching
Sept. 9. In a departure from previous
stunt remodels, often given away via
contests, the Discovery-owned net
will keep the San Fernando Valley
home — potentially as a location for
future specials or corporate events.
“We could be sitting on a gold mine,”
says Discovery’s Kathleen Finch.
“We can’t decide until the show is
done and America has seen the
house again.” Renovation on the
home’s quiet, suburban street went
smoothly, Finch notes — with a great
deal of effort and expense. HGTV
put up soundproofing on one side
of the lot (to shield neighbors with a
new baby) and rented out the home
on the other side (conveniently
already listed on VRBO). “We go
above and beyond to be good neigh-
bors,” she says, “because that’s our
reputation.” — MICHAEL O’CONNELLFeinsteinMinnellistarring Renée Zellweger, which saw its world
premiere Aug. 30 at the Telluride Film Festival
and opens in theaters Sept. 27. The film is
an adaptation of End of the Rainbow, a 2012
Broadway play that emphasized the more tragic
aspects of Garland’s life, including her struggles
with addiction and their toll on her personal rela-
tionships. Minnelli has said she doesn’t “endorse
the upcoming film about Judy Garland in any
way.” After all, “The greatest tribute to my mother
is to watch her own movies, not a film about her,”
she says. “No one can sing like Mama!”231
HGTV paid almost double the asking price
on the Brady Bunch home — Lance Bass also
was a bidder on the Studio City property.1 Original
orchestral
arrangements
of “Over the
Rainbow” were
discovered
by Michael
Feinstein in a
friend’s office.
2 Judy Garland
and composer
Harold Arlen
(seated to
her left) sang
songs from
The Wizard of
Oz in the NBC
radio studio,
circa 1939.
3 Renée
Zellweger
in Garland
biopic Judy,
premiering
Sept. 10
in Toronto.