Christopher Peterson Takes RB by Storm
It’s been two years since North America’s foremost female impersonator Christopher Peterson packed up his production of Rehoboth’s perennial favorite Eyecons and headed to the sparkling streets of Vegas. While that journey proved much more of a bumpy ride than he had hoped for, he landed once again on his well-heeled feet returning to his loyal and adoring fans in Key West, Florida. This July, he returns to Rehoboth for a one night only performance of a dazzling new dramatic play with music that he co-wrote with the playwright Darrin Hagen titled Typhoon Judy. The production takes place in Judy’s head, circa 1964, as she lay comatose during a raging typhoon in a Hong Kong hospital room following a suicide attempt shortly after a disastrous concert in Melbourne, Australia.
Theatrical and dramatic (quite the turn from Peterson’s highly comical, brassy and shtick driven Eyecons), Typhoon Judy also reads as a skillfully crafted, witty, poignant, and highly personal account of a woman who dedicated every ounce of her being to show business. Peppered throughout the production is a large selection of songs from the Garland song book carefully selected to bolster the biographical aspect of the show. In any actor’s hands it’s a meaty role—in Peterson’s, it’s sure to be a banquet.
MS: What’s been going on with your career since your last appearance in Rehoboth and now?
CP: After we moved to Las Vegas to do the show, the producer backed out before it got off the ground. After a decent eight week run at the Onyx Theatre, we discovered that unless you’re “on the strip” people don’t know you exist in Las Vegas. We had a chance to work the Four Queens downtown. They really liked the show, but there were too many delays. The summer was coming and we needed work. We did a quick tour of Canada in August, then packed up and moved back to Key West. That was the Vegas adventure.
MS: Why Judy and why now?
CP: Because of my performance of her in Eyecons. People say “You channelled her. You should do more of her.” I’ve had the idea of Typhoon Judy for 15 years but only in treatment form. When asked to do Rehoboth this year I said, “I want to do a new show in Rehoboth and it’s going to be Typhoon Judy.” It pushed us forward to get it done. Why now? Judy was the first celebrity drug addiction and overdose story that we all knew about. It predates the Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, and Whitney Houston story.
MS: Tell me about the co-author Darrin Hagin and your collaboration process.
CP: He wrote Bitchslap which I performed in Key West—a huge hit! I told him about Typhoon Judy and he said, “I want to help you write it.” It was painless and spectacular. We collaborated over Skype with the script in front of us. Part of it’s from a CD called Judy Speaks. It’s her reading into a dictaphone in 1965. We cleaned the incoherency as she’s pretty drunk at some points on it. It’s her words about her children and her husband. Some of the stories, ones we liked, are from biographies. We mish-mashed it together putting songs in between. The show is half singing and half speaking. There’s a song at the beginning—”I’m Just A Minstrel Girl.” “The story of my life is in my song” is one of the lyrics. It’s absolutely true. Her songs really do tell the story of her remarkable life.
MS: How much of the biographical information in Typhoon Judy was from research materials and how much had you picked up over your career?
CP: What I knew about Judy before Typhoon Judy was probably the same that most knew about her. What was interesting were the stories I had never read before. One’s about her relationship with Bogart and Bacall. They started the original Rat Pack! Sinatra joined and took over after Bogie died. When she got cleaned up in Boston for the first time off drugs she befriends a little girl there—I won’t give that one away— but it’s a very touching story. We decided to tell those stories. Hopefully the audience won’t have heard it before as it is so interesting to listen to.
MS: In Typhoon Judy, Judy’s career is really at the beginning of her tragic downslide. Is she aware that her star is fading?
CP: That’s a really good question to ask. Her life is a roller coaster. In the show, it’s the ups and downs. She knows the problems, but she’s blaming everyone else. Not until the end of the show does she realize that she is the problem. If she wants to continue, she must change. There’s a very happy ending with a triumphant concert that shows that she still got back on stage, did her job and did it amazingly. It’s a down period in her life, but she pushes through. It’s the tenacity of Judy Garland.
MS: Do you have concerns about the audience’s potential reaction to the darker aspects of the show?
CP: It is a play. For those thinking “Let’s have a couple of drinks and watch Chris be Judy,” they’ll get halfway through it and think, “Jeez, this is pretty serious.” It’s not a frolic through the posies. It’s a dramatic look at a woman’s life. There are several light parts—the whole thing isn’t heavy, but no matter what I do, there’ll be some saying (laughingly with pantomimed slurred speech) “Why didn’t he do Tina? I wanted to see Tina!”
MS: What are the differences between the Christopher Peterson of Eyecons and the Christopher Peterson of Typhoon Judy?
CP: In Eyecons, the audience gets to know me and who I am as I change between the ladies. In Typhoon Judy, I play Garland from beginning to end—no breaking the fourth wall—Judy for 90 minutes. They’re different challenges. I have to act. With acting you have to be very specific with how lines are read. This is a roller coaster. I get to laugh, scream, sing, cry—and that’s in the first 10 minutes! It’s very challenging, but if it doesn’t challenge you, why do it? You want to be challenged in your craft and not stereotyped. This show is going to let me grow as an artist.
MS: Tell me about the costumes.
CP: I designed these as an homage to the outfits she wore and not direct duplicates. It’s our own treatment of some of the Bob Mackie dresses for her TV show. If you’re a Judy fan you’ll recognize them, they’re not identical, but you’ll say “Wow, that’s a Judy outfit!”
MS: There are new musical arrangements with a more character driven delivery in Typhoon Judy. What was the thought process behind that?
CP: We knew we were going to talk about her husbands and her children. The Garland songbook made it so easy to paw through. What are we going to sing about Liza? Well, there’s a song called Liza. Let’s do that one. Now, they’re not the most popular Judy Garland songs, but they’re perfect for keeping the story going!
MS: Over the 20 years or so that you’ve performed as Garland, have you formed a relationship with the essence of who and what Judy Garland was?
CP: Garland was the first character in which I could actually talk like them—not just vocally—I could react the way that they would too. I didn’t have to think about it. It would just take over. Some said I “channeled” her. As an actor, it’s good to be that comfortable in the skin because you can do anything. You can react.
MS: You have an impeccable sense of timing and delivery. How much of your performance relies on that kind of rhythmic delivery?
CP: She had a certain cadence and a certain style in the way that she talked. Delivery, sometimes for her was very deadpan. She’d say something she thought funny and people would laugh. It’s a brand new show and we’re hoping the laughs are in the right spots. The reading proved that the laughs are there.
MS: What do you want the audience to take from the production?
CP: Two things: something they didn’t know about her before and an emotional ride—the same one that she was on. If you can’t touch people emotionally, there’s no reason to do a show. You want to strike an emotional chord in people. I don’t want them to feel sorry for her. Hopefully, they will be able to feel what it was like for her to go up and down and up and down and how hard that must have been. It was a tough ride for that gal. There weren’t too many people who helped her. When they did, they pretty much stole from her. It was a rough ride. Maybe you have to feel a little bit of sympathy for the lady.
Typhoon Judy Starring Christopher Peterson
Saturday, July 28
Rehoboth Beach Convention Center (229 Rehoboth Ave.)
Doors open at 8 p.m.; showtime at 9 p.m. Cash bar.
Tickets are $100 ($100 Table Seats are sold out!), $75, $50, and $30 and available on the CAMP Rehoboth website, at the CAMP Rehoboth office or at Proud Bookstore! Purchase Tickets Online
Typhoon Judy is a Bruce Pfeufer and Mini Bear Graphics Production! Created by Darrin Hagen and Christopher Peterson with musical arrangements by Jim Rice. Accompanist Jerry Birl.