Mother and daughter vocalists and musical theater performers Nancy Hays and Mary Heffernan will share the music of another mother and daughter when they perform “Judy, Liza, and More … A Mother’s Day Concert” on May 7 at the Theatre of Western Springs.
Many of the songs they will sing are from a 1964 concert that Judy Garland performed with her daughter Liza Minnelli at the London Palladium.
Hays reported that the Palladium concert “was the only time in Judy’s lifetime that they performed together on a stage.”
The pair will sing several duets, including “Happy Days are Here Again,” “Two Lost Souls,” and “Together Wherever We Go,” among others.
“We’ve really tried to match their choreography,” Hays noted.
Hays will solo on such songs as “Over the Rainbow,” “The Man that Got Away,” “San Francisco,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and “Just in Time,” among others. The selection that is most meaningful to Hays is “Make Someone Happy.” “It is right for the time,” she explained. “Coming together is about making each other happy.”
One of Heffernan’s favorite songs in the show is “For Me and My Gal.” “That’s because as a geriatric social worker, I spend my days caring for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and although many of their memories are fading, ‘For Me and My Gal’ is one of the songs that every time I turn it on for them, they all know the lyrics,” she said.
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Her favorite duet with Hays is “Happy Days are Here Again.” “That’s another one that seems to put everyone in a good mood,” she explained.
Award-winning Music Director Robert Ollis duplicated the vocal arrangements to recreate that London concert. He will play piano for the show and lead a jazz trio featuring Anthony Scandora of Wheaton on drums and Lara Ochoa Regan on reed instruments.
Hays stressed that she doesn’t attempt to impersonate Judy Garland. “I try to bring in some of her vocal style and her dynamics,” she explained. “I try to be a vessel for her music. I think that’s true of Mary as well. She has her own vocal qualities but she’s bringing that essence of that big belter and energy.”
Although it is a rare treat for Hays and Heffernan to sing together professionally, their singing connection began long ago.
“We began singing together when she was just a little girl,” Hays said. “Right away. when she was about 3 years old, I could tell that she could sing well. She fell in love with music, mainly watching the Disney singalong songs and the Disney movies.”
Hays took her daughter to see “The Sound of Music” at the Auditorium Theatre when she was about 4 years old. “She was riveted to the music,” Hays recalled.
After that, the two sang together at home as well as in family groups with Heffernan’s other three siblings, all of whom are musically talented.
Hays has been a professional performer for many years. She was the opening act in Las Vegas and at other locations for legends George Burns, Danny Thomas, Tommy Tune, Rita Rudner, Conway Twitty and others. She has had leading roles in musicals at Chicago theaters. Hays toured the United Kingdom five times, sharing her original music, and is planning a sixth trip for next year.
Performing songs by Garland is familiar territory for Hays, who has played the icon in eight productions, including for her first professional role.
“I played Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at the Little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois, when I was a teenager,” she said.
Heffernan, who has a master’s degree in social work, works with seniors who are dealing with memory loss and dementia. She has performed in a number of professional and community theater shows, most recently in December with the Wheaton Drama Group’s production of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Performing with her daughter reminds Hays of what transpired during the one-and-only time Judy and Liza shared a stage. “I understand about her feelings of passing the torch to her daughter and recognizing for the first time when she saw in front of that live audience what a powerful talent she was,” Hays said.
“As a mother you have pride in your kid anyway. But when you see that transformed in front of an audience and others appreciate that talent, it’s incredibly gratifying.”
“The thing I enjoy most about singing with Mom is the fact that music brings us together and we can share in the memory of performing together, which is something we both love to do,” Heffernan said.
The vocalist said that she enjoys singing Liza Minnelli’s songs because, “singing songs by a woman who has accomplished a lot in her life despite health challenges, and living her childhood in the public’s eye under the shadow of her mom, is the best way I know how to honor her.”
Heffernan added that Minnelli also overcame addiction, hip surgeries, and brain encephalitis in 2000.
“Doctors told her she may never recover from that,” Heffernan related. “Despite all these challenges, she kept on going.”
The pair is scheduled to perform this show a second time on May 8 at Le Piano in Chicago.
‘Judy, Liza, and More … A Mother’s Day Concert’
When: 7 p.m. May 7
Where: Theatre of Western Springs, 4384 Hampton Ave., Western Springs
Tickets: $42; $37 for subscribers
Information: 708-246-4043; theatreofwesternsprings.com
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Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.