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[0:00] Kevin Ferguson: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the fabulous Feinstein 54 Below. Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder. Please take this moment to silence your cell phones. Also, there is no flash photography, please. Please welcome Lorna Luft.

[0:20] Lorna Luft: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Feinstein 54 Below podcast, where we take you behind the scenes at Broadway's supper club. My name is Kevin Ferguson. I'm an assistant programming director here at the club, and our guest today is Showbiz Royalty, the daughter of legendary entertainer Judy Garland and producer Sid Luft. Lorna Luft made her performing debut singing on the Judy Garland show. Since then, she has had starring and guest starring roles on film and television, ranging from Grease 2 to series like Murder, She Wrote and Sean Saves the World. Lorna was the co-executive producer of Life with Judy Garland, the five-time Emmy Award-winning miniseries based on her best-selling memoir, Me and My Shadows.

For several years, Lorna has been starring in American and British productions of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. Lorna is also a concert and cabaret artist who performs all over the world. Her other theatrical credits include her Broadway debut in Promises, Promises, Off-Broadway's Snoopy and the Extremities, the National Tour of They're Playing Our Song, a British tour of Pack of Lies and Gypsy, Grease, Guys and Dolls, Mame, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and so many more. Everyone, help me welcome the one and only Miss Lorna Luft.

[1:39] Kevin Ferguson: Lorna, welcome to the podcast.

[1:41] Lorna Luft: Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh, this is so exciting. We're seeing each other remotely right now, but it is such a pleasure to meet you. This is so exciting for me. Thank you so much. This is lovely. I can't wait to be in a room with you, though, because oh my goodness, I've got to tell you this. I'm very over all this. I really am. I want live people. I want to see people. I want to. Oh, I just, I mean, I'm tired of being a Hollywood Square. I just can't. I can't, and I don't want to be on the Brady Bunch. I don't like it. I just got to tell you something. I'm technically challenged, so thank God for my husband, else people would have just never known anything for 17 months. They would have not known anything.

[2:24] Kevin Ferguson: Right.

[2:25] Lorna Luft: Same. It has been quite the shift doing everything remote and the technology that we've all had to learn as artists and performers. It has wow. It's been a shift. This is like what's really been amazing to me is that I've always thought learning a new show or learning, let's say, new lyrics or something like that is difficult. Honey, that all can take a back seat. That can all take a back seat to learning how to do anything on a computer with me. Everybody else is really, really technical. I can't, you should try to see me send an email. It's terrifying.

[3:08] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah, unfortunately, I have that same problem sometimes too.

[3:12] Lorna Luft: But listen, we're making it through. Live performances are coming back. In fact, you are going to grace the 54 Below stage soon. Is this the first time since everything went crazy last year that you've been able to get back on a stage and see a live audience? Or have you been?

[3:28] Lorna Luft: Yeah, I can say this, and I haven't said this since my early 20s. This will be my first time. And I sang at my daughter's wedding last month, and in the middle of the song that I was singing at her wedding, I thought to myself, I remember how to do this. I remember what this is like, I remember this, and I just felt sort of a wave of this is gonna be okay come over me because it really is frightening. You sort of go back to your first opening night on a stage, and you think to yourself, I hope I'm gonna be okay, and I hope I don't mess anything up, and I hope, and it just takes you back because we've built up so much confidence, and we've built up so much. Maybe the word is a little bit of a relaxation about what we do, and we built up so much of that over the years, and then when you get taken out at the knees by what we've gone through, it just takes you back to remembering what it was like at the very, very beginning of when you first stepped on a stage.

Because not to have done that in these 17 months that everybody has gone through the same thing that I have gone. You know, I've never ever ever felt that my toes literally were hanging over the rabbit hole. And my husband has said to me, don't go down that rabbit hole, because it's frightening. It really was frightening, it was scary, it was everything, and it was really easy for all of us to fall into the oh my god, what are we gonna do thing? And then someone said, Okay, there's something that we can all connect on it, and it's mechanical, but we all learn to do it. I mean, if you'd left it up to me, you would have never seen me again. Because I don't I mean, you know.

[5:27] Lorna Luft: Yes, but I have to say, I'm so truly filled with grateful, and I'm so filled with joy that I'm coming back to someplace that is so special to me. 54 Below is so special to me. And I mean that because I feel such a connection to everyone who takes part in making that entire room work. And I literally I thought about everybody so much, and I thought, is everybody gonna be okay? And what can I do and how can I help them? And all of that, because I really got scared about the room because it means so much to so many of us, because we are so well looked after. And it's like you really do feel that your second home, the door was closed for a while, and we couldn't get in. And I thought to myself, how do I help these people?

How do I help the staff there and all of that? It was really to me, I was so scared for you guys. And my show that I put together, I thought to myself, what do I want to say? What do I want to do? And I thought to myself, a lot of people are using the word pandemic, all of that. And I really thought, you know, I don't really want to. I know we're in one, and we know that, all right. So I thought, what have I learned throughout all of this? And I've really learned about the word grateful. So my show is I'm so excited. I'm so excited all about my gratefuls in my life. It's all about the composers and the lyricists who I have known in my life that I was friendly with, and who are my gratefuls and their music and their lyrics.

[7:18] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[7:18] Lorna Luft: And the stories that go along with all of the brilliant composers and lyricists that I have known in my life, not all of them, else we'd have to be there for a lot longer. But I've picked the ones that I think will bring joy and memories and fun. Just fun.

[7:39] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[7:40] Lorna Luft: Yes. I'm ready to have some fun too, Lorna. I get that.

[7:44] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[7:45] Lorna Luft: Let's get and have some fun. Let's laugh, let's clap, let's cheer. Oh. You know.

[7:50] Kevin Ferguson: Mm-hmm.

[7:50] Lorna Luft: I'm ready. Let's do that. I'm ready. I'm so ready to just go out and see people. And it's just interesting because you always think of yourself, because let's face it, I'm old. And I know that, okay, let don't beat around the bush. I'm old. So I mean, we've never had anything like this because when you look throughout history, show business has been the one thing that has always flourished during any kind of really terrifying thing that this country has gone through. And I all of a sudden I felt like we were sort of on the autobahn, if you understand what I mean. So I felt like we were all going 150 miles an hour, and we weren't taking time to say hello, how are you? How do you feel? How's your family or anything? And it went from a green light, it didn't even go to yellow, it just went to stop.

[8:41] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah.

[8:42] Lorna Luft: And we all stopped. And I thought it was really terrifying, and it was really scary, and it was a lot of things. But then you started to think, what have I learned from this? And I think we've learned to just take that moment and call someone that maybe we haven't spoken to and say, You okay? Are you all right? And just to connect. And I just hope that is something that we you know the human body is so weird because we forget things really easy sometimes very easily. And when you're my age, you forget them a lot. But you just find yourself I just don't want people to forget about reaching out and saying, Are you okay to one another?

[9:27] Kevin Ferguson: Right.

[9:28] Lorna Luft: Yeah, and we're getting back to that. I feel the energy, I feel everyone really excited to see each other. I feel people a little nervous coming back to the real world, but I think it is opening. I love what you said about the gratitude in your show and how you're really focusing on that as a theme and idolizing your mentors. Did you not have the average childhood upbringing? And you grew up in Hollywood. You grew up in Hollywood. Were there any mentors that you really remember inspiring you at a young age?

[10:03] Lorna Luft: Well, yeah, I mean, I didn't really grow up in Hollywood. I grew up in Los Angeles, London, and New York. Because my mom was always on the road, so we would go with her. So when everyone whose parents had famous people that were in their family on television, they were grounded and we were gypsies. We just went everywhere. Yeah. And I always thought that that was I loved that. I really did. So I got to meet composers and lyricists that my mother was working with all over the world. So the first grateful person that I'm paying tribute to in the show is someone that knew me way before I was born and then stayed in my life for a long time. And his name was Johnny Mercer. And Johnny and my mom, of course, met each other when they were doing the Harvey Girls, and that was way before my mom's first marriage.

So and way before I was thought about. So it's people like that who I have stories about who not mentored me, but they were just around, and because of their music and their lyrics, I learned so much. And Johnny Mercer wrote my theme song. He wrote the song Lorna for me. And I think that's pretty remarkable when you think about how important he was to the Great American songbook. So he's one of the people that I'm talking about.

[11:33] Lorna Luft: I'm also talking about Jerry Herman. Uh huh. Jerry and I that was the last time I was on a stage for his memorial. And then the pandemic hit and everything was closed, and that was really the last time all of the Broadway people were really together in one location. And we had no idea, we really didn't have any idea of what was about to happen to all of us. But Jerry was one of my closest friends. I was friendly with him for 31 years, and I know that because my daughter is 31 and I was pregnant when I met him with my daughter. And I just told the stories of being on the road with Jerry and how I mean he was really Jerry Herman knew how to do one thing, and it was the one thing he loved more than anything, and he loved to laugh.

I was lucky enough for Jerry to call me when he did his television special, Jerry Herman's Broadway at the Hollywood Bowl. And just working with not only him, but with Libra Reims and with the incredible Leslie Uggams. And the fun that we had on that tour, and we did something like I have to get the exact number, but I know I'm not far off. We did 27 cities in six weeks on a bus.

[12:53] Kevin Ferguson: Lorna, how did John do that?

[12:56] Lorna Luft: Don't ask. We laughed. We laughed to a point where it was nuts. We laughed to a point where it was really, I mean, that's what I mean. And you know, 31 years ago, when Jerry offered me this wonderful tour, it was funny. He left out the part about the bus till the end. You know? And he said, Oh, you want to do a tour? It's gonna be great. We're gonna call it Jerry Herman's Broadway, and we're gonna go to 27 cities. I said, Great, on a bus. On a bus. And I thought, oh, okay. But you know, 31 years ago, you didn't even think about it. You went, Oh, okay. And now you still have those memories. It's one of those we'll laugh about this later kind of moments.

[13:41] Lorna Luft: Oh, well, but we laughed all the way through it. Oh, that's good. All the way through it. But he was so special and he was so divine, and he was such a good friend to me. Another grateful that I'm honoring and sort of saying my thank yous to was a man who became truly part of my family, and that was Peter Allen. And Peter was my brother-in-law, and how I was a young, awkward teenager when I met him, and he was so important in my growing up. And as I said, he was really, you know, very, very much. He was my brother-in-law, and he was so special to me. And so that person is real special, special, I don't know, like that little ornament that you might have on your mantle, and he's so special to me.

[14:34] Lorna Luft: And then a woman that I really did love, and she was so responsible for my teenage years because she wrote some of the greatest pop songs with girl groups, and her name was Ellie Greenwich.

[14:54] Kevin Ferguson: Oh.

[14:55] Lorna Luft: And Ellie Greenwich was my friend. And it's a funny story how I met her, but as a teenager, I was so desperately crazy and in love with all of those girl groups, the groups that she wrote for. The Ronettes, the Crystals, Bobby Sox, and the Blue Jeans. I mean, all of those great girl groups. And she wrote all those songs, and there's all of those songs are just joy, and they're fun. And they take us all back to a time where it was a lot less complicated.

[15:31] Kevin Ferguson: Let me say that again.

[15:32] Lorna Luft: Definitely.

[15:33] Kevin Ferguson: I can imagine.

[15:34] Lorna Luft: I can imagine things were much simpler back then. And but now we're here. And because of that, and because of your journey, you've been everywhere. You have performed in so many prestigious venues like the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall and the London Palladium. Do you have a venue that you still want to check out or perform at, or a dream that's been on your bucket list?

[16:01] Lorna Luft: Gosh, you know something I don't know because I've been very, very, very lucky to have performed in these great, great venues. I guess the reason that I like the older venues, like the London Palladium and of course Carnegie Hall, is the history. I do love going back and looking and seeing, you know, that you're standing on the same stage as, and then you go down the road to see who, and it just becomes incredibly special. And there are venues for many artists that are special because maybe they love the sound, maybe they love the history, maybe they love the feel. And that's one of the things that I have found to be really, really important because there's something about going into a venue that you have performed at, and that you it's basically like the venue sort of wraps its arms around you. And you think I feel okay. And even though it's really big, you know, I played the Hollywood Bowl several times, and it's so daunting.

[17:14] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah.

[17:15] Lorna Luft: People are sitting literally in a different zip code. And I mean, they really are. I mean, I always say I can see everybody up there in Pasadena. They're someplace else. But it there's something about knowing who has been on that stage and the special history of the venue, and then you think, listen, I'm really lucky to be here, so take advantage of where you are and what this means, and just don't treat it as another gig.

[17:50] Kevin Ferguson: Wow, definitely, definitely.

[17:53] Lorna Luft: Just be appreciative all the way through. I feel with your childhood and just traveling around so much. Were there moments where you might have been a little hesitant taking the career path of a performer? Do you remember any moments growing up that made you like, I don't know if I want to be a performer? Or were there moments that definitely catapulted you into wanting to be a performer?

[18:18] Lorna Luft: I think, and I've said this before: when you come from a family of doctors, you're gonna be a doctor. If you come from a family of lawyers, somebody's gonna be a lawyer. I just went into the family business. Yes. I didn't do anything odd. And when people always say to me, Well, do you think that going into show business? No, I was born into show business. So it's something that I was born into, and it wasn't something that I used to say to people whenever people ask me what it was like, and I thought I always say I have nothing to compare it to because I didn't grow up in the Smith family, and then Judy Garland adopted me.

[19:01] Kevin Ferguson: Right.

[19:02] Lorna Luft: So it's like I don't have anything to compare it. This was my normal. And I know it sounds odd to people, but it really, really was. So going into show business really wasn't anything, it was nothing ever crossed my mind that I wouldn't, and I don't mean maybe not as a performer, maybe as I don't know, something else, but it was always in the business.

[19:29] Kevin Ferguson: Yes, yes.

[19:30] Lorna Luft: So I never really, really thought about that. But you know, it does make me laugh because I was on a television series for a while, which was very, very fortunate that I was on this show called Trapper John MD. And I was on it with a young man who I a lot of actors on the show were brilliant, but Brian Stokes Mitchell was on the show with me.

[19:54] Kevin Ferguson: Wow.

[19:55] Lorna Luft: And so Stokes and I were on this series together, and we would just sit and laugh and this, that, and the other, and nobody knew this because I never told anybody this.

[20:04] Kevin Ferguson: Okay.

[20:05] Lorna Luft: So I was playing this nurse, and we had this one storyline where I was supposed to give this actor a shot, an uh hypodermic. What they didn't know is I have a dreaded fear of them.

[20:19] Kevin Ferguson: Oh no.

[20:19] Lorna Luft: And so, oh yeah, so they put this hypodermic in my hand, and uh, the next thing I heard was the director of photography say, Where'd she go? And I had hit the floor, okay, and and Lorna. I didn't I don't like that. So I can't tell you how much this pandemic with all of these pictures of needles going into arms has freaked me out totally, and so it has freaked me out. I'm constantly with a click or going, I can't watch this anymore. So when people say, Well, did you ever think of another, you know, like you just asked me? Uh no, I never thought of that because I did think about at one point being a nurse, I would have been the worst nurse because they would have had to have k scooped me up off the floor all the time.

[21:07] Kevin Ferguson: Yes, yes, needles can be very scary.

[21:10] Lorna Luft: I get that. I had to look away when I was getting my shot. I just it's I can't handle it sometimes.

[21:14] Kevin Ferguson: I totally understand.

[21:15] Lorna Luft: I don't even look away. I just I just I know I don't even look when the you know, we've had so much, I have so much gratitude and so much love for our frontline workers and all of that. And and I tell them all the time when they come in the room, you know, because I have gotten my booster, so I'm triple vexed. So they come in and I say, Okay, I just want you to know I love you. I'll take you for coffee, I'll I'll do anything, okay? Let's just talk all the way through this, and they go, Okay, and they talk to me.

[21:47] Kevin Ferguson: Okay, that is so nice.

[21:49] Lorna Luft: Listen, you know what you need. And listen, what would we have done if Lorna Love decided to be a nurse? We would have missed her as an iconic.

[21:59] Kevin Ferguson: No, honey, there would have been so many people who were really ill.

[22:07] Lorna Luft: We would have been doomed.

[22:09] Kevin Ferguson: It would it would have been doomed.

[22:11] Lorna Luft: It would have been lights out. That is so funny.

[22:14] Kevin Ferguson: Oh my god, Lorna.

[22:16] Lorna Luft: Listen, I love that you decided to go into the family business. I remember the first time I saw you on the screen. It was as Pink Lady Paulette in Greece 2.

[22:30] Kevin Ferguson: We love Greece 2.

[22:32] Lorna Luft: How do you feel that out of all these years, Greece 2 is still so iconic? It's kind of become like a camp favorite, and like younger generations have fallen in love with it. How does that feel? And what was that experience like doing that movie?

[22:47] Lorna Luft: It was a great experience. I mean, come on, we weren't out there doing Shakespeare. You know, we were doing Greece too. It was a very, very, very long process for me because I knew Alan Carr, and I knew when he was doing the first one, and I was living in England at the time, and he said to me after they had finished the first one, and I had known Patricia Birch. Pat Birch and I knew each other from their playing our song. So I had known Pat Birch and I knew Alan Carr, and I didn't know Robert Stigwood, but they had called me and they said there's going to be a movie called Summer School, and we want you to be a part of Summer School. And that was right after the first Greece opened. And then it just took forever.

[23:35] Lorna Luft: And it was, I think it was something like five or six years after the first one had been done that they finally got everybody on board for Greece too. And it was a long audition process. And it taught me a great deal about doing a film as an ensemble player. And I was so thrilled to be a part of the movie. And I was so honored because I got to work with three people that I was so I guess in awe of.

[24:33] Lorna Luft: Those were the people that I would sit on the set and just talk to. And the first thing it would always, we would always say, you know, good morning to each other, and then I'd say, okay, when you did this movie, spill it. Okay, and they would just laugh because a lot of the younger people weren't as maybe in tune as I was into their biography and their history as actors. And I remember the morning that I walked into the makeup trailer, and Eve Arden was sitting there, and she just said, I adored your mother, and I said, I know, and my mother loved you, and I just I can't tell you how much your work has done so much for me, and you your incredible talent. And she just looked at me and she said, I'll pay you anything you want. And we became really good friends, but those memories of Greece too, and that we're all still really close friends, and we're all we all try to keep in touch with each other as much as we can.

[25:35] Lorna Luft: And I just feel I'm really grateful. And the one cool thing that happened to me right before the pandemic was I've been doing a show that I hope will make a comeback somewhere in America, and that is Irving Berlin's White Christmas.

[25:53] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[25:53] Lorna Luft: And I was on tour with Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and I got a message from our stage manager that there was a young lady who had come to see the show, and she had a gift for me. And I I said, Oh, okay. And they said, She bought your pink lady jacket, and she wants to give it back to you. And wow, she was so lovely, and she said, I've had it for a very, very long time, but it needs to go home. And I was so grateful, and I was so taken. And so I got my pink lady jacket back.

[26:28] Kevin Ferguson: Wow.

[26:28] Lorna Luft: So I was really, really, really, I was very happy about that.

[26:33] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah, I can tell you, as a young gay, I was always wanting one of those little pink lady jackets. Like I always thought they were so cute.

[26:42] Lorna Luft: Oh my goodness. Do you feel like that having that memorabilia and that moment with you right now? You can grab it, you can touch it. Does the memories of the movie and the process come back to you?

[26:55] Lorna Luft: Yeah, you know, it's run on television all the time.

[26:59] Kevin Ferguson: Yep.

[27:00] Lorna Luft: But okay, so this is really funny. I'm now a grandmother.

[27:05] Kevin Ferguson: Oh, okay.

[27:06] Lorna Luft: Yes, thank you. And I'm about to be a grandmother for the fourth time. I have three grandchildren already, and my daughter is going to have her second child. So I have four grandchildren. And they're five, five, and six. And so they are now watching Greece too. And they think it's very, very cool that's, you know, they call me Gigi, and they always say, Oh, Gigi, let's watch that movie where you had on that pink coat.

[27:37] Kevin Ferguson: Iconic.

[27:41] Lorna Luft: Okay. And it's fun for me to take them down that road. And it's just, I'm grateful that the fans are still there. And we've had anniversaries of the movie and the sing-alongs in theaters and all of that. And I'm sure that there are a lot of people who make a film and they may not be real proud of it at the time, or they may have a problem with it. I never felt that way. I always was really grateful that I got the role. I got to work with these fantastic, fantastic talented people. And that I have to say, I feel that the opening of Grease 2, that dance number is still one of the greatest musical moments on film.

[28:34] Lorna Luft: I really do. Yes. And I just have really good memories. And I'm really, really pleased that I got to do that. And I do, and and some really funny stuff happened on that movie.

[28:46] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah.

[28:47] Lorna Luft: Wow. Any fun stories that you can share or top secret, Hollywood?

[28:50] Lorna Luft: Well, I mean, it was just always, always somebody was, it was usually that we were all together, and it was always a fun time.

[29:00] Lorna Luft: And what was really interesting was Maxwell Caulfield, who was so adorable in the movie. And he was married, he's married to a beautiful woman, Juliet Mills. And it was just people coming down to the set and making sure. The one thing I can tell you is, okay, I know I'm gonna get slack for this. I know I am, but I have to say, spending over 10 days in a bowling alley, I can actually say that I really don't ever want to be in a bowling alley ever again. That sort of did it for me. Um I don't like bowling. Um I appreciate people who do like it, but I'm good. Listen, you're like, I don't have to see a bowling alley ever again after doing that many. No, no, I'm good.

[29:53] Kevin Ferguson: That is so funny.

[29:55] Lorna Luft: Okay, so you did your screen action. You were able to make your Broadway debut in Promises, Promises. How did that differ in that process of like making this sequel to this iconic movie with an iconic cast versus making it your Broadway debut in Promises, Promises?

[30:14] Lorna Luft: Well, Promises, Promises, again, I was just in my early 20s, and I sometimes I wish that I could go back to really have more insight into that creative team that put Promises together. I was lucky enough to have a lovely friendship with Burt Bacharach, but it was Hal David, who I really had a very close friendship with, and he was always the one that I have a very special place in my heart for lyricists because I always feel that sometimes they get the short end of the stick. And Michael Bennett, I mean, Michael Bennett was as brilliant as you could possibly imagine and terrifying at the same time because he was scary, because you didn't want to screw up in front of him. When I met him on Promises, he had not seen the show for a while, and he came in unannounced, which I think a lot of choreographers, directors do, just to make sure that the cast doesn't know.

And he was angry at certain things that had maybe needed to be polished and things and all of that. And I had a very, very long hair piece, which was a fall that came down. And I remember him knocking sort of hard on my dressing room door, and it was sort of well, he banged on the door.

[31:48] Kevin Ferguson: Wow.

[31:48] Lorna Luft: Okay, oh, he did. And I opened it up and he said, Who put you in that hair? And I said, Hi. And he said, he just he was just saying, you look like Alice in Wonderland. And it looks like the character of Sheldrake is a pedophile, and we're cut that hair. And he was like, I mean, he was like, I was like, okay, all right, but he was right. And you don't want to piss off Michael Bennett, you really didn't, because I said he had a pretty good temper. But when he liked something, and when he when he saw his work being done to the level that he knew it could be, he was a really wonderful, wonderful guy. And I just wish I had more time than I did with Michael.

[32:39] Lorna Luft: But Neil Simon was for me just the quintessential New York writer. I know that a lot of his shows were turned into movies, and he did write incredible movies, but he was so amazing because Neil Simon's work had a rhythm. And if you didn't say it exactly on the page, and if you skipped a word or you dropped something, something wouldn't land. And that's why his plays, that's why his work is so brilliant, because he heard it in that rhythm that he would write it in. And when I did They're Playing Our Song, and I did Promises, Promises, and I learned a great deal of how I mean, I very rarely use the word genius because I think it's tossed around too much. But Neil Simon truly was a genius because he knew that if you said the exact words as he wrote them, whatever the final outcome of that sentence would be, it would land.

[33:57] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah.

[33:58] Lorna Luft: And that's extraordinary. And when you look at his work from the very beginning throughout his entire incredible career, I was so lucky. That was the first artist words that I got to speak were Neil Simon's.

[34:17] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah, that is something that I think you'll be able to hold on forever. And Neil Simon is iconic, and that team you were talking about is just the fact that that was the team that you made your Broadway debut with. I just feel like that is so exciting.

[34:28] Lorna Luft: It was exciting.

[34:33] Kevin Ferguson: You've also went on to writing your own creations. You have a memoir called Me and My Shadows. What inspired you to write that slash what was that process like writing your own memoir?

[34:46] Lorna Luft: Well, I'm very grateful that the reason that I wrote Me and My Shadows was actually I was in the gym. I had just taken a spin class, and I was at the front desk, and I was hot and sweaty and repulsive after you know you are with a class. And I remember, I can't remember, it was one of the Laker wives, okay, because they were in the class with me, and I am a massive Los Angeles Lakers fan. Oh and I Lorna yes yes they're my Lakers I take it all personally and so does my whole family but anyway she said oh you know there's another book about your mom coming out next and I thought really how many books is this gonna be where these people weren't in my house there was nobody under a bed writing down what happened and all of this and I thought you know maybe it's time maybe it's time to tell this story of what my mother was like as a parent as my mother and not as an icon and not as a legend but as the person I knew and so I wrote the book in 18 months I had a fantastic editor at Simon and Schuster and it was my story and it wasn't anyone else in my family's story and I made sure to say that because I think if you come from a family of brothers and sisters they're all gonna have their own stories.

[36:22] Lorna Luft: Of course and I was thrilled I was thrilled that it was on the New York Times bestseller. I was thrilled that it did so well and then when I was able to make a four hour mini series from the book with the unbelievable Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis and we were nominated for uh 13 Emmy Awards and we won five.

[36:47] Kevin Ferguson: Wow.

[36:48] Lorna Luft: Was a journey that was it had all the ups and downs of a journey of going from coming out of a spin class into sitting in the audience at night of the Emmys of that book. And I know that people still buy it, and I'm thrilled about that. I also have a special place in my heart from my second book, which was all about all five movies of A Star is Born. And when I was lucky enough to be in the company and talking with Brad Cooper and Lady Gaga, and thinking to myself, they understand this story is not just about Hollywood, that it is a story about human nature.

[37:35] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[37:36] Lorna Luft: And that this is what happens to people. And I enjoyed writing that book.

[37:43] Kevin Ferguson: Yeah.

[37:44] Lorna Luft: I have so much admiration for writers because it's a struggle because it is in I heard someone say this, and I it is very lonely because there's no one, it's your thoughts and it's your piece of paper. Listen to me, piece of paper.

[38:00] Lorna Luft: Um piece of paper. Oh, it is only a piece of paper with me. And I think to myself, I love to do it, but it's also when you read it out loud, or you read it to someone else, or you read it to and the way that they interpret it or the way they think maybe you should change this, and then it's so personal writing your story. Well, not only your story, a story, but I think that when people do it and they do it in the right way, I don't know, it's like the first bite of your favorite dessert. When you open that book and you read that and you think, oh yes, they got it.

[38:39] Kevin Ferguson: Yes.

[38:40] Lorna Luft: Yes.

[38:41] Kevin Ferguson: I feel you have so many stories. I feel like you've met everyone. I want to sit and talk with you all day. Lorna, this is so exciting. Do you feel connected to the gay community as strongly as your mother was? Some people would refer to you as a gay icon yourself. Do you feel that?

[39:02] Lorna Luft: You know, do you? I think so, but I can't speak for the whole community. But do you feel that? Do you feel the love?

[39:10] Lorna Luft: I am so grateful to the LGBTQ community because I have learned so much over the decades. I have learned, I've heard their stories. I've heard all of the stories that the people who were actually at Stonewall have told me. I have learned about the laughter. I have learned about the humanity that the gay community has always strived for.

[39:56] Lorna Luft: And have we come a long way? Sometimes, yes, and sometimes we got a long way to go. Absolutely. And I feel that there is I am involved on the board, the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative. And I'm very honored to be on the board of anything that has to do with Stonewall, because I think it's such an incredible story, and it's such a and each person who was there or who was in the neighborhood or who was a part of Stonewall of the riots, they have their own personal journey to tell.

[40:37] Lorna Luft: And I don't ever think that it was my mom's, you know, because everybody said it was your mom's certain people have said to me it was your mom's funeral that night that ignited. And I always think to myself, I think there's so many more pieces that sort of went on top of each other to build the bonfire of the uprising. I think my mother's passing away was a spark. But it wasn't the entire reason.

[41:09] Kevin Ferguson: Right.

[41:10] Lorna Luft: And that because of that, and because of literally having been told so many years of what the gay community and their respect and their love and admiration and their own stories about what my mom meant to them. It's always like I have a little treasure. When I walk down the street and I see that beautiful rainbow flag, there's just something, it's when I took my children to West Hollywood and we saw all the flags, and I told them a little bit of the story, and all of a sudden they looked at the flag and they said, that's cool. And I said, isn't that cool? And so it's a part of my history, and I guess part of my family that I'm incredibly honored and incredibly proud of.

[42:11] Lorna Luft: And I will always be my mother despised and hated bigotry. She hated everything that there was negative or anything about not treating someone like you want to be treated. And that's what she taught me, and I teach my children, and now I teach my grandchildren. And it's something that we can't take for granted. And sometimes I get frightened and I get scared that we're going backwards. And then I have to say, you have a voice and you have a way of just if you meet someone, and especially in today's heated atmosphere, of just saying, Explain this to me and talk to me about it. And if you talk to somebody, if you open up a I think communication has just gone out the window with a lot of people, and I think it's so important to just say explain something to me, or I don't understand.

I don't think there's anything wrong in saying I don't understand. Talk to me about it, and then maybe you will understand where they're coming from, and you can educate them about what you are trying to say.

[43:43] Lorna Luft: And how she talked to my sister and my brother and myself, I think that that is something that I'm incredibly grateful for, because when you look back, I'm a child of the 60s, and what you look back and you see the movements in the 60s, it was as crazy as it is now.

[44:05] Lorna Luft: And sometimes when people say, can you, um, have you ever seen anything like this? And I'd say, yeah, I did. I did see something like this. I have seen something like this, and I have seen pain, and I have seen voices, and I have seen, and what are we? I mean, what are you now, the couple of generations going to learn from that? And sometimes it's more, it really is the art of listening, yeah, I find to be incredibly important. So I've listened to so many people and I've heard them, and I think that's all we can really, really, really do. And just don't close yourself off and think my way or the highway. No. That I think is dangerous.

[44:52] Lorna Luft: And I think that we're inside, uh, this whole time. I thought about this the other day, and I thought, you know, if I took you out to lunch, let's say, in 2015, and I said, you know what's gonna happen in the next couple of years? You would have called people with a straitjacket and you would have had me take it off to the loop. I would have said, go pick up Lorna. She's talking crazy about the year 2020. Go pick her up. You have said you have got to be in that beautiful jacket that goes this way, and it buttons down the back. Okay. It lets you hug yourself. It makes you hug yourself because nobody's gonna believe this.

[45:49] Lorna Luft: Listen, yeah, definitely. Well, I just love what you said about listening to each other and being vulnerable and saying, I don't know that. Please explain that to me. I think a lot of people have to hear that. And the fact that you were just raised with that idea and you still believe in that. I think it's so beautiful, and it's definitely something that people gotta hear.

[46:10] Lorna Luft: Well, I think people hear it. I just don't know if they, I want more so to hear it is to apply it. I feel that, yes, New York is an unbelievable part of my growing up and my love of the city and of the entire state of New York. And I love that when it comes down to, and I know people have asked me in when I'm in different countries, or New Yorkers sometimes looked at as brash and rude and all of that. And I said, okay, let me just explain something to you. A lot of people in New York are on their own time clock, and yes, because it is a city that has a pulse to it and an energy and all of that, you can apply that to any big city, but New York City, when it gets into a dire situation, and God knows New York City has been in dire situations. Nobody comes together like that city. Nobody just reaches out and just lets all of that crap say, okay, we're gonna be there for each other. And it's just that's the special thing about New York.

[47:30] Lorna Luft: And that's why it's so important that people are going back to I guess what you're gonna call our new normal. Yeah. And when I saw, I guess it was last night, Wicked opened last night, and Kristen Chenowith was on the stage, and I looked, there was a picture of her, and I love her so much. She's so, oh, she's been so lovely to me. Anyway, so I saw her on the stage, and I but it showed a packed theater. And I literally blew it up on my computer, and I said, look, look, look. They're back. It's happening. I mean, it's happening. And I think to myself, that is what New York stands for.

[48:17] Lorna Luft: The theater, it stands for, I watched something really amazing, which was just, oh, it was so, I guess the only word I can use for it was completely heartwarming, heart-wrenching, and just, uh, made my heart actually almost hurt and fill up with love so much. I watched the Metropolitan Opera come back on 9-11, and they did Verdi's Requiem with an entire full orchestra and an entire full choir, and four brilliant members of the Metropolitan Opera. And to see that happening, and Misty Copeland introduced it, and to see those musicians, that choir on that unbelievably sad, sad anniversary, but to see everybody holding on to each other was just, it was so heartwarming.

[49:22] Lorna Luft: And then I mean, I'm standing up in my living room all by myself, just going, yeah, for them, like I have for, but I just, you know, that's what New York is. It's about the arts, and it's about whenever the arts can come back, we will. Yes. And that's the cool thing about what we do as entertainers. Yes. The show must go on. You know how they say that. Honey, I know listen, I knew Freddie Mercury. Okay. So I the show must go on.

[49:54] Lorna Luft: Wow. And this has been, you want to call, you know how we all get to our microphones, and I'm sure you do it pretty much every time you do a podcast, and you say testing one, two, three, honey, this has been testing one, two, three. We have done the test over and over again. It is time to get to the show. Yeah, it is. It's like, okay, somebody's gonna call places. Okay. It's happening. And you know, it it's so great. It really is, it's really heartwarming and it's heartfelt. And it it is, it's sort of, I don't know, it's a little bit daunting. And I never thought I would really feel like that because you know it's something I do and all of that, but because when you don't do it, it's like anything, you know, when everybody says, oh, it's like riding a horse.

Well, you know, when you haven't been on the horse for a while. Okay. It's a little bit frightening, but then you think to yourself, we're all there to do one thing, and that is be entertained. Yes. I mean, it's not such a really huge deal what we're doing.

[50:56] Lorna Luft: And to be able to say thank you. Yeah, you know, what we've been through and what we've all experienced and what we've been through, and we can all now go and share that with each other. And I don't really, I have to say, you know, when people say social distancing, fine, I'm all about safety. Let's do it. Yeah. Let's all do it because let's keep pushing forward and not go backwards with anything.

[51:24] Lorna Luft: Yes. Oh, yes. Moving forward with everything. With everything. I definitely feel a shift of some kind with the industry, especially after last year. And I like the shift. I like to see where it's going. And I feel like theater is transitioning into this new era with what we gotta work with and the stories that are being told. I just think it's beautiful. And I'm really excited to have you back in the city to be back at the Fine Science 54 Below stage. I just the stories you have told today on this podcast, I feel like they're gonna transcend into your show. And I just I can't wait. I think it's gonna be so awesome to have you back on the stage. I think everyone's excited.

[52:05] Lorna Luft: Thank you. There are very few, I have to say, of these incredible rooms left. And it's sad to me because a lot of the rooms, you know, just coming up in the 70s and the 80s and all that, there used to be so many rooms around the country that you could play, but they're all the industry changes and people want to stay home more and watch TV and all of that. And I understood why nightclubs and cabaret rooms and all that, why they didn't make it. But when you have this jewel, which that's what I consider 54 Below.

[52:47] Lorna Luft: And let me just say one thing, and we all know it, and there's no getting around it. I had some of the greatest times of my life at Studio 54. Yes. Okay. And you can all watch that documentary, and I should be getting a residual because I'm in that a lot. Okay. And so I mean that whole building. Call them up. I mean, you know, I just find that whole building so special and so wonderful. And so I'm so grateful to everyone who works there. And I'm so glad that everybody is back and all of that. Because I really, honest to God, I really did worry about you guys.

[53:34] Kevin Ferguson: Aw, thank you. I'll definitely let the rest of the team know that. And I'm sure they'll hear it on the podcast.

[53:41] Lorna Luft: I love them. I do. I love them. And you know why I love them? I love 54 Below. And I'll tell you why. I love 54 Below so much because you really are walking back into a time of it is glamorous, okay, and it is beautiful. And you do expect to, I don't know, see someone dressed in some fabulous suit, walk by in there because it's glamour, and it just has a timeless energy about the decor, about everything about 54 Below is so special.

[54:22] Lorna Luft: And I have to say this because this is my part of my love of 54 Below. It has the greatest sound and lights, and all of the people who run the technical part of 54 Below. I love them. I mean, they are so caring. And they do the greatest job. And I don't know, that day of rehearsal, there's gonna be a lot. Get out the Kleenex, honey. I want that concession. All right.

[54:57] Kevin Ferguson: Get that concession out. Okay, we'll make sure we have the Kleenex ready for you, Lorna. We're gonna we are gonna have all the emotion seeing you back at the club as well. We are so excited for you. We love you just as much as you love us. And I just want to thank you for taking so much time out of your day today to chat with me and just tell all those stories. You have inspired me so much today, just sitting and chatting with you. I'm so excited to see you perform back at the club. This is so exciting.

[55:24] Lorna Luft: It is exciting. I guess over the last 17 months, we have all sort of felt a bit like having the rug, you know, the old magician's thing where he pulls the tablecloth off and nothing moves, or it falls on the floor. We've been living with that tablecloth. Okay, because we don't know if it's all gonna crash down or if it's all gonna be okay. You know what I mean?

[55:47] Lorna Luft: Yes. That's the visual I always have. There's that tablecloth. I don't know what's gonna happen when we pull it. And that's what we've been, that's what we've been living through for 17 months. And I think to myself, I've now, when I saw that picture of the theaters opening last night, and I saw all of that. I thought, oh my god, they pulled the tablecloth and it's all still there. Yay!

[56:12] Kevin Ferguson: Wow, that is a brilliant metaphor. That is so true.

[56:14] Lorna Luft: That's exactly how it feels. And it is like a sigh of relief like the show's opened. We're okay. We're okay.

[56:22] Lorna Luft: Yeah. And I'm grateful. And that's what the show is called. It's all about what did I get out of this? I got to stop, and I got to realize what am I gratefuls? And I think that that's a very, very cool thing to say during something that was so, I guess you want to say unpredictable, so unhinged, so crazy, so everything. What was the good that you got out of this? What can you take away that you got out of this? And if you can find something that is a positive out of all the negativity, then I think that you've learned something, and that's what you should leave the room with.

[57:04] Kevin Ferguson: Thank you so much for taking the time out to chat with us today, Lorna. You can catch Lorna Luft on October 21st through October 23rd at 7 p.m. at Fine Science 54 Below. Join Lorna as she brings joy to the craziness in the world around us by sharing her favorites from the great American songbook. Expect some songs made famous by her mother and film legend Judy Garland, as well as stories from Hollywood, Broadway, and beyond. As only she can tell them. You don't want to miss this. Get your tickets now.

[57:39] Kevin Ferguson: You've been listening to the Fine Science 54 Below podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.