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    Becoming Judy Garland

    Becoming Judy Garland: Houston actress transforms into legendary singer with life-altering results

    Clifford Pugh
    Mar 24, 2016 | 11:45 am

    It's been a year since Stages Repertory Theatre artistic director Kenn McLaughlin first approached Carolyn Johnson about portraying the demanding role of Judy Garland in the musical drama, End of the Rainbow. After she went in and sang a couple of Garland songs, McLaughlin said on the spot, "We're doing it," and Johnson's great adventure began.

     

    Through April 10, the Houston actress inhabits Garland on stage in the challenging musical, which covers the last few months of the legendary singer's life as she performs in London.The show has been such a hit with Houston audiences that Saturday matinees have been added throughout the run of the show. (UPDATE: The run of the show has been extended to April 17.)

     

    It's a role that demands Johnson look like Garland (an process that takes a couple of hours before each performance), sound like Garland (in words and song, with such immortal hits as "The Man That Got Away" and "Over the Rainbow"), and behave like Garland (with a mercurial personality that veers from bawdy to tragic in just a few seconds) — all in front of critical audiences who have their very strong memories of the iconic singer, who died of an accidental overdose in the London apartment she shared with the fifth husband in the summer of 1969. She was only 47.

     

    Though Johnson didn't know about the play, she immediately immersed herself in all things Garland after taking on the role. "I went down the rabbit hole doing research, watching her, listening to her, reading about her, everything. And reading this play over and over again. It's been quite a process, coming at it in all different directions. There's Judy Garland herself and there's Judy Garland that's portrayed in this play. It's also about trying to tell this story," Johnson says.

     

    And, she knows, that expectations are great. "You know there are going to be people walking in with their arms crossed, saying 'OK Judy, show me.' I just to keep telling myself I can't worry about that. I have to do my work."

     

    In a wide-ranging interview Johnson, who has appeared in such Stages productions as The Great American Trailer Park Musical and A Picasso, talked about how playing Garland has changed her life.

     

     CultureMap: Has this been the most challenging thing you've done professionally?

     

     Carolyn Johnson: I think so, if only for the reason that I feel a greater responsibility doing a show like this. She's a real person and I want to be true to her as much as I can. From the very beginning, I felt very strongly that I didn't want this to feel like something where we're dragging her through the mud or somehow exposing the seamy underbelly. I hope that people walk away with more empathy for her rather than any judgments because I think it's very easy to judge.

     

    I've heard for years, "Oh, Judy what a hot mess," that kind of flippant attitude. But I think it's so much more to it than that. And the deeper I got into it, the more responsibility I felt to tell the story as truthfully as I could. But in the end it is still fiction, so it is a balancing act for sure.

     

     CM: What about the physical part of it? When you performed at the Stages Gala, I was surprised to see you have long hair because I just assumed you cut your hair for the role.

     

     CJ: It's a good testament to the wig that your thought it was my hair. It's surprising to people, but it isn't too big of a trick putting all that hair up there. There's a skill to it. Pin curls. It's a little time consuming.

     

     CM: How long does it take you to get ready?

     

     CJ: About two hours or so. Every night before the show, we do what we call a "fight call." H.R. Bradford, who plays (Garland's fiance) Mickey, and I have some of the physical struggles (during the play), so we run that every night before the show. It's easy for those things to get sloppy and a little out of control. It's just a chance to keep that in check and fine tune it.

     

    I also do a sound check with the band. My back is always to them during the show so it's fun for me to get to watch them play and interact with them a little bit. We just pick a different number every night and then I head out and keep getting ready. Then I warm up in the dressing room. My makeup takes a while, all of that.

     

     CM: You are a voice coach. (Johnson and her husband, UH School of Theatre & Dance director Jim Johnson, operate a website, accenthelp.com, that helps actors and others perfect accents.) Did that make it easier for you to pick up this accent for Judy?

     

     CJ: I suppose so. I definitely come at it from a different direction than an average person that doesn't do that kind of work. I wasn't sure how much of that technical accent work would work in doing her. So I had to just try it out first and see how far I would go with it. That was kind of a fun challenge.

     

     CM: Did you go around the house speaking as Judy the past year?

     

     CJ: A little bit. Mostly I did it away from people, when I was working on the script. I actually tried to make it a point not to expose my husband and others any more than I needed to. I wanted them to be surprised when they finally saw it.

     

     CM: Do you dream about Judy?

     

     CJ: I can't think of any actual dream I've had at night that's she's been part of, but I feel like she's constantly present in every waking moment. It's so all encompassing right now. It's become very personal to me and I don't know if I anticipated that. It just feels very much like she has become very real to me. Or at least my version of her has become very real to me.

     

    I think that's been reinforced by the fact that I really did not anticipate this response. People keep coming up to me and they're so emotional about the show and it's been overwhelming, gratifying for sure, but definitely overwhelming. It's blindsided me a bit. I didn't realize the extent that people would be affected by it.

     

     CM: Why do you think Judy Garland endures?

     

     CJ: She really had this unique vulnerability on stage and people just really responded to it. And I don't know that people even knew why they responded to her so strongly sometimes. But I think she had a way of really having her heart on her sleeve when she was performing and her connection to her work was so strong.

     

    She was just a uniquely sensitive person and I think her sensitivity to a certain degree was also a bit of her downfall. It set her up for her addictions and a lot of her dysfunction as well. But it was what made her so brilliant onstage. People just felt her emotionally.

     

    And the gay community (connected with her because) she seemed to be this vulnerable person beset by terrible circumstance and she always prevailed. She could have felt all the shame in the world for everything that she went through and was thrown up in her face in the papers over and over again and yet there she was, fabulous as ever onstage as her own amazing unique self.

     

     CM: What have you learned from doing the role?

     

     CJ: I've learned a lot of things about myself, maybe a higher level of trust in myself because every day I kind of dive in and do this thing that is overwhelming and scary. When you do scary things every day you get braver, I find.

     

    I learned so much about my singing voice and my voice in general in trying to do this. I felt, as a singer, it was like taking a master class from her. She's just a genius, really truly. And I just feel lucky to to try to do my part to get to try to do my part in emulating her. And I hope I do it justice.

     

    ------------

     

     End of the Rainbow will be performed through April 10 at Stages Repertory Theater. For more information visit www.stagestheatre.com.

    Before every performance of End of the Rainbow, Carolyn Johnson takes around two hours to transform herself into Judy Garland.

    Carolyn Johnson as Judy Garland in Stages End of the Rainbow
      
    Photo courtesy of Stages
    Before every performance of End of the Rainbow, Carolyn Johnson takes around two hours to transform herself into Judy Garland.
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    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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