Lorna Luft Lives in the Moment and With the Past

“I’m one of the luckiest people around. I can say I played the Hollywood Bowl. And near the 58th anniversary of when my Mom played it in September.” The enthusiastic voice on the other end of the phone last week was Lorna Luft, Judy Garland’s daughter with her third husband, Sid Luft. Luft will be opening her good friend Barry Manilow’s two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday and Saturday.

The anniversary about which she was speaking was when Judy Garland brought her Carnegie Hall concert to Los Angeles on September 16th of 1961. This won’t be Luft’s first time on the Bowl stage. Not only was she there when her mother played there, but she appeared in 1993 as part of a tour of Jerry Herman’s Broadway where she sang two songs from Mack and Mabel.

When Luft called me last Friday to talk about her upcoming performance, the role of the Hollywood Bowl in her family’s legacy seemed like a logical place to start our conversation.

Your family has a long history with the Bowl and many of those performances are the stuff of legend. Why do you think the Bowl is a perfect fit, historically, for your mother, your half-sister Liza Minnelli and yourself?

The Hollywood Bowl, the London Palladium and the Palace Theatre in New York, that’s where all three of us have performed. That’s a pretty great thing to be able to say after all the theaters we’ve all performed in. But the Hollywood Bowl, I’ve always been incredibly excited, scared, it just does so many things to you. It’s still an OMG moment. I’m incredibly grateful.

You’ve done a number of cabaret shows and live performances, what’s on tap for the Bowl?

I am celebrating the 58th anniversary of my Mom. I’m doing “Rockabye Your Baby” and “The Man That Got Away.” Then I’m doing some special material called “Born in a Trunk” which are my children’s voices and me about their grandmother. It’s an incredibly special piece that goes through her entire history of her movies and her work in song.

You steered clear of your mother’s songs for the longest time. When did you finally come to terms with her legacy?

It took me a long time to come to peace with my mother’s legacy because it was so big. When you have a parent who is a star, that’s one thing. But a legend is totally different. Like I wrote in my first book, something comes in the room before you and leaves before you do. I made the choice to go into the family business, but I had to find my own footsteps. 

When you are doing that in your 20s you are looking for sand to leave a footprint. In your 30s you have children and ask what am I going to tell them? In my 40s and 50s I had to make friends with the ghost and that’s what I did. The first person I called was Barry. I honestly thought I’d get a 40-minute long speech. He said, “It’s about time.” It’s like I have this wonderful older brother that I can go to who just happens to be a musical genius, but he also happens to have wonderful taste. Whenever I do anything I call him first.

Barry recently did an interview with Rob Tannenbaum of the New York Times where he said he never has a good time performing and that he thinks about walking away from performing every night. Does that surprise you?

I didn’t read that article. He and I have been best friends since 1972 and he is the most extraordinary performer. I know for a fact that Barry loves being on stage. He loves doing what he does. He makes everyone feel like he is singing to them. That is a gift very few artists have. Sinatra had it. My mother had it.  

You participated in the 50th anniversary of Stonewall as part of Worldwide Pride. Why is this important to you  and what was your experience being there?

We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. And we mustn’t ever forget that we must treat people with dignity and we have to treat people with kindness. Until not one person is left on this earth that is not going to be treated in a completely honest and wonderful way, I will fight for them.

Being on the Stonewall Float was extraordinary. As we passed by the Stonewall Inn the entire group of people in front of the bar and along the streets started to sing “Over the Rainbow.” Did I  lose it? Yes, I cried. I didn’t expect it. It was like somebody (and then she gasps)…nobody gave them a cue. They just get it.

The old adage says that with age comes wisdom. What makes you wiser today than you were when you first  performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 1993?

Oh my God. I think I’m wiser. We all have a journey that we have  gone on. I was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago and I battle every single day and I’m here. I’m here and I’m so grateful. I live every single day in the moment. I think that’s the lesson I  learned. I don’t call cancer a journey because to me a journey is Neiman Marcus. My journey is shows and handbags. I call it a ride. I can’t think about what’s going to happen tomorrow. I can’t think about what’s going to happen in an hour-and-a-half. I tell my children all the time that’s the only way you are going to feel what I feel with age. That’s how you get through it.

For tickets for Friday night go here.  For tickets for Saturday night go here.

Lorna Luft  will also be performing  at Martinis Above Fourth in San Diego on September 18th and 19th. For tickets go here.

Unless otherwise noted photographs courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.