Night of A Thousand Judys: Part One

I just bought tickets to the 6th Annual Night of A Thousand Judys here in New York City.  It's an annual benefit concert which pays tribute to Judy and The Ali Forney Center, which houses and protects homeless LGBT youth.  

I debated going, because the tickets in the orchestra are not cheap, and it is often torture for me to watch other people sing Judy's material.  Too often they attempt an imitation, or try to show her up , like Rufus Wainwright does by professing to love her, but making snide comments about liquor and pills.  This seems to come from the right place, and hopefully the performers will honor her by using the material to relate it to their own lives, and be emotionally open with the audience.  That's the best way to honor her, in my opinion.  What tipped the balance in favor of my going was the fact that I've been following this event for the past six years, reading about it online and thinking "if only".  Well, my "if only" is going to be Monday night, and you can join me in the balcony if you would like.

Of added benefit is the appearance of Barrett Foa, whom I've always thought was dreamy to the extreme.  So if it gives me a discomforting sensation being there by myself, or if the performers are less than respectful, I will just lose myself in Barrett's bespectacled blue eyes and pillow lips.  

But in truth, I am pretty excited.  The featured performers I'm familiar with are stellar, and there was a recent article published in which the stars of the concert extolled Judy and how she raised the musical theatre bar.  I'm sure that by then end of the evening I will be wondering how I could have thought about missing it.  I mean, after all, one of the entire reasons I'm in New York is to be experiencing the things I've always read about and wanted to participate in, so now that I'm here, the only thing stopping me is me.  Full update on the concert in the next couple of days.