Connie Champagne has been a beloved fixture on the San Francisco theatre, concert and cabaret scenes for longer than she might care to admit. The singing actress has performed rock, punk, folk songs and show tunes, but nothing grabs an audience more than when she channels Judy Garland.
On Monday and Tuesday nights, Connie will once again become Judy at the Rrazz Room. The concert will be recorded live for her holiday album Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. How does Champagne explain her nearly flawless ability to channel Garland?
"Every pony has a trick, and my trick is really good," she says. "I don't look anything like her, except for being the same height and shoe size, but my body is made to make those sounds. For me and Judy Garland, there's no escape, and people are very attached to the idea of Judy at Christmastime. So they dust me off like an old Christmas tree to do the show."
Champagne is no stranger to delivering a Yuletide Garland, having performed as the star in New York, LA and SF productions of the holiday shows Christmas with the Crawfords and Judy's Scary Little Christmas. But unlike those camp fests, this holiday concert takes a more affectionate turn.
"Christmas is a weird time because people have such high expectations," she says. "I like doing a show that brings people together from different walks of life. This show makes people a little less cynical, so it also makes me less cynical about Christmas."
One thing that sets her apart from other performers like Jim Bailey who do Judy is that, in addition to performing the classic Garland repertoire, Champagne performs songs that Judy didn't sing, but might perform if she were alive today.
Would Judy have sung a Lady Gaga song like "Poker Face?" Champagne thinks she would have. And so she does. "I'm always taking requests. I've done David Bowie and Joni Mitchell songs as Judy Garland because people have asked to hear them." In the holiday spirit of expanding Garland's repertoire, she'll include Tom Lehrer's "Hanukkah in Santa Monica" – "and I'm still looking for a good Kwanzaa song."
Although her Garland impression is spot-on, she doesn't see what she does as impersonation. "If people want to call me an impersonator I'm not insulted, but someone like Rich Little is about satirizing the person and their tics. I see it as portraying a character; I look at the whole person, not just what stands out on first look. With Judy Garland, I start with her vulnerability. Her physical characteristics say a lot about everything she'd been through. At the end of the day, I'm an actor playing a part."
The strategy paid off when Champagne did Judy for Garland's daughter Lorna Luft at a Meet Me in St. Louis tribute, and at a previous Rrazz Room concert. "I was so nervous about it. If someone played my mother, I'd be very territorial. But she liked it. She said, 'Nice job.'"
F. Allen Sawyer not only directs the Merry Little Christmas concert, he's been collaborating with Champagne since 1995, when he first inspired her to play Garland in Christmas with the Crawfords. "I wasn't obsessed with Judy Garland as a kid. I wanted to be David Bowie or Meryl Streep," she says. "It was really Allen's vision."
Is she worried about being typecast as Judy Garland? "Hell, no! I want a job! I'm five feet tall, so I don't fit the typical leading-lady mold." Champagne also approves of Anne Hathaway, who's set to play Garland in the upcoming film Get Happy. "I could totally see that, even though she's six feet tall. As an actor you can create it, and she has a tremendous capacity for vulnerability and honesty on screen."
What's in a name?
Connie Champagne's alliterative moniker has caused some to assume she's a drag queen (she's not). Born Kelly Brock in Roseville, CA, she had the bad timing to be an aspiring young actress when model Kelly LeBrock was hitting it big with The Woman in Red and Weird Science. Her real name had to go.
While researching her role in a drag play about the Charles Manson family, she read about Susan Atkins' cellmate Virginia Graham, who broke the story that the Manson family committed the Tate murders. "One of Graham's aliases was Connie Champagne, and I thought it was a hilarious name."
Her drag queen co-star Doris Fish started calling her Connie offstage, and the name stuck. "If I was going to pick a name to be a serious actress, I wouldn't have chosen it. But I like it. It's not pretentious."
The actress got more than just a drag-friendly name from the experience. "I've learned a lot from drag queens about owning the stage and rising to the occasion." Which she's certain to do on Monday and Tuesday nights, when Connie Champagne once again becomes the immortal Judy Garland.
Connie Champagne as Judy Garland, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Mon. & Tue., 12/20-21, 8 p.m. at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason St., SF. Tickets ($30) at ww.therrazzroom.com or (800) 380-3095.